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Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Teradata comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 4, 2026

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
6.9
Teradata significantly boosts speed, efficiency, and ROI, with studies showing a 427% average ROI over three years.
At least fifteen to twenty percent of our time has been saved using Teradata, which has positively affected team productivity and business outcomes.
Senior product analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Independent research showed that Teradata VantageCloud users achieved an average ROI of 427% across three years with payback under a year, demonstrating the platform's ability to deliver a strong financial return.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
We have realized a return on investment, with a reduction of staff from 27 to eight, and our current return on investment is approximately 14%.
Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy 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
7.1
Teradata's support is praised for professionalism and responsiveness, but feedback on speed is mixed; training resources enhance service.
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
The customer support for Teradata has been great.
Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
They are responsive and knowledgeable, and the documentation is very helpful.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Customer support is very good, rated eight out of ten under our essential agreement.
Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 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
Teradata offers scalable cloud and on-premise solutions with strong adaptability, overcoming hardware limitations and cost challenges efficiently.
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
Whenever we need more resources, we can add that in Teradata, and when not needed, we can scale it down as well.
Senior product analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This flexibility allows organizations to scale according to their needs, balancing performance, cost, and compliance requirements.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
This expansion can occur without incurring downtime or taking systems offline.
Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting
 

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
8.3
Teradata's robust architecture ensures exceptional stability and reliability, with minimal downtime and high user ratings despite some integration challenges.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is stable for us because it is built on SQL Server.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Its massively parallel process architecture allows the platform to distribute workload efficiently, enabling organizations to run heavy analytic queries without compromising speed or stability.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I find the stability to be almost a ten out of ten.
Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The workload management and software maturity provide a reliable system.
Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse presents complexity, compatibility challenges, performance issues, high costs, and requires improved in-memory analysis and updates.
Teradata requires improvements in transaction processing, scalability, UI, cost-effectiveness, analytics features, integration capabilities, and security measures.
It would be better to release patches less frequently, maybe once a month or once every two months.
Associate Director at Sequentis
Addressing the cost would be the number one area for improvement.
CEO at Smart Data-Driven Solutions
When there are many users or many expensive queries, it can be very slow.
Computer engineer at a engineering company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I want to highlight two features for improvement: first, storing data in various formats without requiring a tabular structure, accommodating unstructured data; and second, adding AI ML features to better integrate Gen AI, LLM concepts, and user-friendly experiences such as text-to-SQL capabilities.
Data Engineer at Tredence Inc.
Unlike SQL and Oracle, which have in-built replication capabilities, we don't have similar functionality with Teradata.
Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most challenging aspect is finding Teradata resources, so we are focusing on internal training and looking for more Teradata experts.
Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy 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.
Teradata offers high-value analytics with flexible pricing, excelling in performance and ROI, ideal for large enterprises and data-intensive sectors.
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is very expensive.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Teradata is much more expensive than SQL, which is well-performed and cheaper.
Team Leader for Data Base Administrators at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initially, it may seem expensive compared to similar cloud databases, however, it offers significant value in performance, stability, and overall output once in use.
Principal Consultant & Director at Quensulting
Role-based access control (RBAC), strong audit and compliance features, high availability, fault tolerance, and encrypted data at rest and in-transit are key features.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse offers performance, integration, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness for large data management and business intelligence.
Teradata excels in parallel processing, scalability, and performance, offering robust data management, security, and integration for efficient data warehousing.
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
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is used in the logistics area for optimizing SQL queries related to the loading and unloading of trucks.
Architecture at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
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
Teradata's security helps our organization meet compliance requirements such as GDPR and IFRS, and it is particularly essential for revenue contracting or revenue recognition.
Interim and Fractional CIO and CTO at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in highly demanding environments.
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
It facilitates data integration, where we integrate and analyze data from various sources, making it a powerful and high-quality reliable solution for the company.
Senior Data Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

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
Teradata
Ranking in Data Warehouse
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (6th), Backup and Recovery (15th), Data Integration (15th), Relational Databases Tools (6th), BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (8th), Marketing Management (5th), Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (3rd)
 

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 Teradata is 9.5%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Teradata9.5%
Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse1.7%
Other88.8%
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.
David Durand Velásquez - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineers at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Delivers consistent performance and enables advanced analytics across complex data environments
Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing and analyzing large volumes of data. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in highly demanding environments. One of its most notable strengths is the ability to run complex queries at high speed, which is essential for organizations that require timely and reliable analytics. Teradata offers a well-integrated ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow. Its focus on advanced analytics, integration with modern business intelligence tools, and the ability to operate both on-premise and in the cloud make it a versatile solution for data warehousing and large-scale processing. Teradata's stability, technological maturity, and the availability of strong documentation and best practices are noteworthy. I consider Teradata to be a tool with great potential for any organization looking to enhance its analytical capabilities, optimize data processing, and move toward more data-driven decision-making. Teradata stands out as a solid platform for managing a large volume of data in different projects. Its architecture allows information to be processed efficiently while maintaining stable performance, even in high-demanding environments. A well-integrated AI ecosystem that supports working with different types of data and enables scalability as organizational needs grow across different kinds of enterprises or organizations. The focus on advanced analytics integration with modern business intelligence tools is particularly valuable. Teradata combines a powerful parallel process and optimizing SQL engine with a highly scalable architecture allowing businesses to execute complex queries and analytics in real-time. It supports multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments, giving organizations flexibility to choose the setup that best aligns with their strategy. One of the biggest strengths is the ability to unify disparate data sources and support high concurrency, enabling different teams, such as analytics, operations, BI, and data science, to access consistent, trusted data across the enterprise.
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Comparison Review

it_user232068 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 5, 2015
Netezza vs. Teradata
Original published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-i-choose-net Two leading Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architectures for Data Warehousing (DW) are IBM PureData System for Analytics (formerly Netezza) and Teradata. I thought talking about the similarities and differences…
 

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
Insurance Company
12%
University
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

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 Business28
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise52
 

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...
Comparing Teradata and Oracle Database, which product do you think is better and why?
I have spoken to my colleagues about this comparison and in our collective opinion, the reason why some people may declare Teradata better than Oracle is the pricing. Both solutions are quite simi...
Which companies use Teradata and who is it most suitable for?
Before my organization implemented this solution, we researched which big brands were using Teradata, so we knew if it would be compatible with our field. According to the product's site, the comp...
Is Teradata a difficult solution to work with?
Teradata is not a difficult product to work with, especially since they offer you technical support at all levels if you just ask. There are some features that may cause difficulties - for example,...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
IntelliFlex, Aster Data Map Reduce, , QueryGrid, Customer Interaction Manager, Digital Marketing Center, Data Mover, Data Stream Architecture, Teradata Vantage Enterprise (DIY)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
Netflix
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Teradata and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
880,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.