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Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Oracle Exadata 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
Most are satisfied with ROI, acknowledging its benefits, though improvements are possible, as it efficiently enhances backend operations.
Sentiment score
6.0
Oracle Exadata offers significant ROI in 12-18 months, with cost savings, performance gains, but challenges in ROI calculation.
The investment is good, which is why people choose this hardware.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse support is responsive and expert, though users sometimes need online resources for faster solutions.
Sentiment score
6.6
Oracle Exadata support is generally positive, but response consistency varies, with mixed reactions to Platinum services.
I would rate my experience with technical support around six on a scale of 1 to 10 because I have not had a particular experience with technical support.
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
If I were to rate their support from one to ten, I would say between nine to ten.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
This involved creating blueprints for integrating Oracle products into client systems, followed by technical presentations to Oracle teams and stakeholders.
CISO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Exadata comes with a platinum gateway and comprehensive support, which often gets immediate attention with severity one cases.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse excels in scalability, integration, and expandability, though improvements are needed for large data sets.
Sentiment score
7.5
Oracle Exadata provides highly rated scalability, enabling easy expansion and efficient resource addition for varying organizational demands.
I give the scalability an eight out of ten, indicating it scales well for our needs.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
As a consultant, we hire additional programmers when we need to scale up certain major projects.
Associate Director at Sequentis
Within a site, scalability is excellent.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is praised for its stability, reliability, and quick issue resolution, despite time-consuming extensive dataset processing.
Sentiment score
7.8
Oracle Exadata is stable and reliable, with improved updates, despite occasional bugs and initial firmware issues.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is stable for us because it is built on SQL Server.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Once installed, Exadata is very stable.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse presents complexity, compatibility challenges, performance issues, high costs, and requires improved in-memory analysis and updates.
Oracle Exadata users face high costs and complexity, seeking better performance, support, and integration with cloud technologies.
Addressing the cost would be the number one area for improvement.
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
It would be better to release patches less frequently, maybe once a month or once every two months.
Associate Director at Sequentis
The ETL designing process could be optimized for better efficiency.
BI/Data Warehouse Analyst at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
I believe that there is still room for improvement in Oracle Exadata, as they are putting AI features on those databases, which is making the database more user-friendly.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
There are minor areas where improvement is needed, such as making the user interface more user-friendly and enhancing configuration and customization options.
Senior Oracle DBA at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
I cannot create an extended rack cluster with one node on one site and another node on a different site.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse's pricing varies by needs; Azure integration can be cost-effective, but technical support costs extra.
Oracle Exadata offers high performance but is costly, suitable for large enterprises with potential cost-saving strategies available.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is very expensive.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the price an eight on a scale from one to ten, indicating it is fairly expensive.
Senior Oracle DBA at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
I find its pricing reasonable and cost-effective for large organizations, but for smaller organizations, it may not be that useful.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse offers performance, integration, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness for large data management and business intelligence.
Oracle Exadata offers fast response, high performance, scalability, and efficient data warehousing through advanced features and seamless hardware-software integration.
The columnstore index enhances data query performance by using less space and achieving faster performance than general indexing.
BI/Data Warehouse Analyst at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
The biggest advantage of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is the possibility to stop or pause the service because it can be very expensive.
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
There's a feature that allows users to set alerts on triggers within reports, enabling timely actions on pending applications and effectively reducing waiting time.
Associate Director at Sequentis
It also offers high backend speed between self-storage units and servers, which is beneficial for processing.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
The most valuable features of Oracle Exadata are its high availability and cluster environment.
Senior Oracle DBA at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
If a customer cannot tune their applications, this will help them to run the database and run the application without any tuning itself.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

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 Exadata
Ranking in Data Warehouse
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
130
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 Exadata is 9.9%, down from 17.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle Exadata9.9%
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse1.7%
Other88.4%
Data Warehouse
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 13, 2014
 

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.
Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Has consistently delivered high performance and aligned security while evolving with AI-driven improvements
When discussing Oracle Exadata, the main thing is the specialized database appliance, the flash cache, and the engineered machine on the database for the database itself. Overall, all the features are useful and meaningful for any database like Oracle to run the Oracle database. Regarding Smart Scan technology, it is for better performance. If a customer cannot tune their applications, this will help them to run the database and run the application without any tuning itself. Oracle Exadata's advanced compression techniques have affected my customer's data storage efficiency positively, with the feature being great, but as of now, our customer is not using that. I find its security measures align with my customer's organization, as security is aligned as per the customer's requirement. It has helped optimize performance and cost.
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Answers from the Community

it_user104457 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 13, 2014
Apr 13, 2014
I think hands down it's Exadata since for the front end apps it's just another Oracle database which means everything under the sun is compatible with it.
2 out of 3 answers
it_user89046 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sales at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 10, 2014
Given we partner with many or all of the above, or can get to them as we access all data, I have the following opinion - InfoBright is very new and probable to be sold long term. It is also an expensive subscription so presents highest risk to me. Exidata is Oracle - if you like Oracle and their style, it maybe ok, but then it is Oracle. Microsoft is Microsoft - tends to be cheap to acquire and expensive to implement and maintain. Teradata is pricey but of the group presents the least risk and the greatest number of front end partners. The product I represent is unique as it is designed for high complexity large numbers of users and data and runs inside Teradata taking better advantage of the architecture. Disclosure: I work for Information Builders
it_user3309 - PeerSpot reviewer
Presenter at a consultancy
Apr 10, 2014
You are asking about front end tools but you do not mention which ones. What you have are "database backends" and each has different features. The utilization will depend on what kind of expertise you have available else you will end up trying to implement say, Teradata on Exadata which may not give you the best solution. What are your criteria for success? Based on these you will have to evaluate each solution -- I am sure each vendor will be happy to set up the environment and work with your set of sampl,e data to show you have they evaluate against your criteria.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Insurance Company
10%
Performing Arts
7%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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 Business47
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise86
 

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 do you like most about Oracle Exadata?
It is the best solution for OLTP and data warehousing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata?
I find its pricing reasonable and cost-effective for large organizations, but for smaller organizations, it may not be that useful.
What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata?
I believe that there is still room for improvement in Oracle Exadata, as they are putting AI features on those databases, which is making the database more user-friendly. Even you can talk to the d...
 

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
PayPal, EBS, Organic Food Retailer, Garmin, University of Minnesota, Major Semiconductor Company, Deutsche Bank, Starwood, Ziraat Bank, SK Telecom, and P&G.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Oracle Exadata and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.