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Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Oracle Big Data Appliance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Parallel Data War...
Ranking in Data Warehouse
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Big Data Appliance
Ranking in Data Warehouse
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Big Data Appliance is 2.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse1.7%
Oracle Big Data Appliance2.0%
Other96.3%
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

HassanFatemi - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
Has handled large volumes of data effectively but still needs cost flexibility
There could be improvements on the cost side of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse because it is still considered to be quite expensive by a lot of users, and many companies are not interested in solutions with parallel data warehousing due to this expense. Addressing the cost would be the number one area for improvement. Additionally, I have not worked recently with it, so I don't know if this feature already exists, but if it doesn't, having an elastic feature that adjusts the service's power dynamically based on the workload would be beneficial instead of fixing the power at a specific level.
reviewer1031826 - PeerSpot reviewer
Analytics Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Platinum partnership leverages advanced storage and fosters seamless data integration
Areas of Oracle Big Data Appliance that can be improved include the pricing perspective because nowadays they have competition. We have so many technologies that have come to the market for less than even one-fourth or one-fifth of the Oracle price. For my side, the last time I worked with Oracle was in '21, '22. The price is a challenge that they have to look after. From the storage and data management perspective, I cannot recall anything that they have to improve, but they have to improve the visualization part significantly because they offer Oracle BI, which is an extremely not-matured application.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Overall, I rate Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse a nine out of ten."
"The biggest advantage of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is the possibility to stop or pause the service because it can be very expensive, and the ability to pause the service when I don't use it is probably the main feature, along with the possibility to handle huge amounts of data, which is quite an interesting capability of the service."
"The most valuable feature is the business intelligence (BI) part of it."
"We are able to monitor daily jobs, so if there is anything that needs to be done then we can do it."
"I'm very pro Microsoft because I think Microsoft products are highly intuitive and are widely used."
"The solution has been reliable."
"It is not a pricey product compared to other data warehouse solutions."
"It is a very stable database."
"Because Big Data Appliance allows me to have a single source of truth, it means I have clean data that can be monetized and leveraged to gain more insights with real-time reports from the dashboard."
"This is a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy."
"The best thing about the product is that the end-user can build the reports by themselves without really knowing anything about databases."
"The best feature of Oracle Big Data Appliance, from a price perspective for the storage, is because they have technology called the ZFS technology; it offers huge storage with a decent price."
 

Cons

"In the future I would love to see a slightly better automation engine, just for the data integration layer, to make it slightly easier for end-users or junior developers to get involved in incremental updating."
"This solution would be improved with an option for in-memory data analysis."
"We'd like to see it be a bit more compatible with other solutions."
"The patch releases are a concern. For a customer with tons of servers, frequent patches lead to required reboots, which interrupts business."
"There could be improvements on the cost side of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse because it is still considered to be quite expensive by a lot of users, and many companies are not interested in solutions with parallel data warehousing due to this expense."
"If the database is large with a lot of columns then it is difficult to clean the data."
"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution."
"We find the cost of the solution to be a little high."
"From a technical perspective, Big Data Appliance could be improved with more innovation in the AI and machine-learning parts instead of relying on Cloudera."
"It seems like the deployment of repositories has become more difficult in later versions of the product rather than easier."
"The product should be simplified for the average user."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Technical support is an additional fee and is expensive."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"The tool could be expensive if we need to manage a lot of data."
"All the features that we use do not require any additional subscription or yearly fees."
"The solution's pricing is fairly decent for organizations with huge data sizes."
"They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments."
"I think the program is well-priced compared to the other offerings that are out in the market."
"Microsoft has an agreement with the government in our country, so our customers get their licensing costs from the Ministry. Whenever we work with any government, company, or government institute, which is mainly what we are doing, that license comes directly from the Ministry of Technology and Information."
"Oracle's prices are too high compared to others in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Insurance Company
10%
Performing Arts
7%
University
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse provides good firewall processing in terms of response time.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?
There could be improvements on the cost side of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse because it is still considered to be quite expensive by a lot of users, and many companies are not interested in so...
What needs improvement with Oracle Big Data Appliance?
Areas of Oracle Big Data Appliance that can be improved include the pricing perspective because nowadays they have competition. We have so many technologies that have come to the market for less th...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Big Data Appliance?
The typical use case for Oracle Big Data Appliance, which my clients use, is usually that the customer who has an Oracle application uses it because they can leverage the storage part. I don't need...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
Caixa Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.