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Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Snowflake Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6.9
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse offers significant ROI by efficiently managing large data volumes and integrating with existing tools.
Sentiment score
6.6
Snowflake Analytics boosts ROI up to 50% by optimizing costs, improving performance, and enabling simultaneous team collaboration.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse support receives mixed reviews, praised for expertise but needing faster responses and improved Azure-related assistance.
Sentiment score
7.0
Snowflake Analytics' support receives mixed reviews; many praise responsiveness, while others face delays and struggle accessing direct help.
The technical support for Snowflake Analytics is excellent based on what I have heard from others.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse scales well but requires SQL expertise; performance varies compared to alternatives like Snowflake.
Sentiment score
8.0
Snowflake Analytics excels in scalability, auto-scaling CPU/GPU resources efficiently, benefiting businesses with its adaptive cloud-based architecture.
I give the scalability an eight out of ten, indicating it scales well for our needs.
It supports both horizontal and vertical scaling effectively.
Storage is unlimited because they use S3 if it is AWS, so storage has no limit.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is praised for stability and reliability, handling large data volumes with minor concerns about processing speed.
Sentiment score
8.5
Snowflake Analytics is highly rated for stability, offering reliable performance and minimal outages thanks to cloud-backed robustness.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is stable for us because it is built on SQL Server.
Snowflake Analytics is stable, scoring around eight point five to nine out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse needs enhancements in speed, scalability, compatibility, cost efficiency, and error messaging for better performance.
Snowflake Analytics requires better orchestration, integration, performance, machine learning support, user interface, cost transparency, and AI-driven analytics capabilities.
When there are many users or many expensive queries, it can be very slow.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive.
The ETL designing process could be optimized for better efficiency.
If it offered flexibility similar to Oracle and supported more heterogeneous data sources and database connectivity, it would be even better.
AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhancement.
Navigating the user console can be challenging, particularly when looking for details like the account ID.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is cost-effective for large enterprises, but costs vary by data size, performance, and support.
Snowflake Analytics uses a flexible, consumption-based pricing model, balancing costs with usability for business analytics and streaming workloads.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is very expensive.
Snowflake charges per query, which amounts to a very minor cost, such as $0.015 per query.
Snowflake is better and cheaper than Redshift and other cloud warehousing systems.
Snowflake Analytics is quite economical.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse offers accelerated performance, seamless integration, and scalability, excelling in data management and business intelligence.
Snowflake Analytics offers scalable, flexible, and secure data integration with standout features for large datasets and AI capabilities across major cloud platforms.
The columnstore index enhances data query performance by using less space and achieving faster performance than general indexing.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is used in the logistics area for optimizing SQL queries related to the loading and unloading of trucks.
The interface is very user-friendly.
Snowflake Analytics supports data security with a single sign-on feature and complies with framework regulations, which is highly beneficial.
Running a considerable query on Microsoft SQL Server may take up to thirty minutes or an hour, while Snowflake executes the same query in less than three minutes.
It is a data offering where I can see data lineage, data governance, and data security.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Parallel Data War...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (10th)
Snowflake Analytics
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (1st), Cloud Data Warehouse (8th)
 

Featured Reviews

StevenLai - PeerSpot reviewer
Strong scalable solution with streamlined metadata warehousing
We use it to build our data warehouse and databases, and everything in the back end It helps streamline our metadata warehousing process. As it is our only type of data warehouse and database, it serves as our source, destination, and staging area. This product has many features which are useful…
KamleshPant - PeerSpot reviewer
Data ecosystem thrives with advanced governance and streaming capabilities
It is a data offering where I can see data lineage, data governance, and data security. Snowflake has a streaming capability to work with real-time streaming data and delta tables. Additionally, task management, job scheduling, and connecting multiple data sources unify my data across internal and external sources. The system ecosystem for analytics is enhanced, and AI capabilities are incorporated.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
30%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Insurance Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Retailer
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake Analytics?
Snowflake is better and cheaper than Redshift and other cloud warehousing systems. It's economical.
What needs improvement with Snowflake Analytics?
Most features are already available. Perhaps AIML integration might be further needed, or Snowflake is already implementing it. AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhan...
 

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
Lionsgate, Adobe, Sony, Capital One, Akamai, Deliveroo, Snagajob, Logitech, University of Notre Dame, Runkeeper
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Snowflake Analytics and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.