Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Oracle Big Data Appliance comparison

Microsoft and Oracle are both solutions in the Data Warehouse category. Microsoft is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while Oracle is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 1.5% mindshare in Data Warehouse, compared to Oracle’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Parallel Data War...

Read 39 Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse reviews

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384 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Oracle Big Data Appliance

Read 6 Oracle Big Data Appliance reviews

418 Views
326 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Microsoft Parallel Data War...

Oracle Big Data Appliance

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse and Oracle Big Data Appliance are both data analytics and warehousing solutions. Oracle Big Data Appliance offers a broader set of features, potentially making it a more comprehensive choice for businesses despite its higher cost.

Features: Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse integrates seamlessly with existing Microsoft systems, supports extensive data manipulation, and provides robust data integrity features. Oracle Big Data Appliance supports both Hortonworks and Cloudera Hadoop distributions, has Spark on YARN integration for faster processing, and offers enhanced language processing.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse could benefit from expanding its support for non-Microsoft ecosystems, enhancing scalability options, and improving data processing speeds. Oracle Big Data Appliance could improve user accessibility for non-technical users, simplify its extensive feature set, and provide more resources for faster deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse integrates easily with other Microsoft products, simplifying deployment and leveraging quick customer service. Oracle Big Data Appliance, albeit complex, compensates with high-quality support to assist through deployment and usage challenges.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is known for cost-effectiveness, providing competitive ROI especially for businesses keen on budget efficiency. Oracle Big Data Appliance, though more expensive, is seen as a beneficial long-term investment due to its extensive features, which can translate into significant ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance

September 2025

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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

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Big Data Appliance

Ranking in Data Warehouse

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Big Data Appliance is 1.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse	1.5%
Oracle Big Data Appliance	1.6%
Other	96.9%

Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

HassanFatemi

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.

Read full review

Mohammed Hamad

AI & Data Engineering Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Provides clean, centralized data

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. Oracle could also improve Big Data Appliance by having one technology on their stack and working on it instead of continually changing the name or technologies or features. In addition, they could have a program to enable their partners to use this technology because right now, I have to have an expert to use the AI elements.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Collecting the data through SSIS packages from different sources and putting them all in one data repository is the most powerful thing. While others have this feature, they don't have the simplicity or ease of use when getting a resource and knowing everything about it."

"The solution's integration is good."

"It handles high volumes of data very well."

"The most valuable features are the performance and usability."

"It is not a pricey product compared to other data warehouse solutions."

"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 interface is very user-friendly."

"We can store the data in a data lake for a very low cost."

More Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse pros

"This is a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy."

"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."

"The best thing about the product is that the end-user can build the reports by themselves without really knowing anything about databases."

Cons

"The product does not have all of the features that the native products have."

"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution."

"The ETL designing process could be optimized for better efficiency."

"SQL installation is pretty tricky. The scalability and customer support also should be improved."

"This solution would be improved with an option for in-memory data analysis."

"They need to incorporate a machine learning engine."

"I would like the ability to do more real-time type updates instead of batch-oriented updates."

"I think that the error messages need to be made more specific."

More Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse cons

"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

"I think the program is well-priced compared to the other offerings that are out in the market."

"The solution is cost-effective."

"Technical support is an additional fee and is expensive."

"All the features that we use do not require any additional subscription or yearly fees."

"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."

"They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments."

"The tool could be expensive if we need to manage a lot of data."

"The solution's pricing is fairly decent for organizations with huge data sizes."

"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

23%

Insurance Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

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.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is very expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Teradata vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse

Compared 39% of the time

Oracle Exadata vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse

Compared 30% of the time

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse

Compared 30% of the time

More Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse Competitors

Oracle Exadata vs Oracle Big Data Appliance

Compared 78% of the time

Apache Hadoop vs Oracle Big Data Appliance

Compared 22% of the time

More Oracle Big Data Appliance Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse

October 2025

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse report

Download Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Warehouse

October 2025

Download Oracle Big Data Appliance product report

Also Known As

Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse

No data available

Overview

The traditional structured relational data warehouse was never designed to handle the volume of exponential data growth, the variety of semi-structured and unstructured data types, or the velocity of real time data processing. Microsoft's SQL Server data warehouse solution integrates your traditional data warehouse with non-relational data and it can handle data of all sizes and types, with real-time performance.

Microsoft

Oracle Big Data Appliance is a flexible, high-performance, secure platform for running diverse workloads on Hadoop and NoSQL systems. With Oracle Big Data SQL, Oracle Big Data Appliance extends Oracle’s industry-leading implementation of SQL to Hadoop and NoSQL systems. By combining the newest technologies from the Hadoop ecosystem and powerful Oracle SQL capabilities together on a single pre-configured platform, Oracle Big Data Appliance is uniquely able to support rapid development of new Big Data applications and tight integration with existing relational data.

For more information on Oracle Big Data Appliance, visit Oracle.com

Oracle

Sample Customers

Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe

Caixa Bank

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance

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