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Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs Vertica 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
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vertica
Ranking in Data Warehouse
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is 1.0%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vertica is 8.5%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

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…
T Venkatesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Processes query faster through multiple systems simultaneously, but it could support different data types
We use the solution for various tasks, including preparing data marts and generating offers. It helps extract data based on rules from the policy team and provides insights to enhance business operations. We also analyze transactions to target customers and improve business performance The…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature for me is querying."
"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse integrates beautifully with other Microsoft ecosystem products."
"Tools like the BI and SAS are excellent."
"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."
"I am very satisfied with the customer service/technical support."
"It is very strong, scalable, and has tons of features."
"It is not a pricey product compared to other data warehouse solutions."
"The stability and ease of use of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse are valuable features."
"I appreciate the flexibility offered by Vertica's projections. It allows for modifying the primary projection without altering the tables, which helps to optimize queries without the need to modify the underlying data."
"It has improved my organization's functionality and performance."
"I don't need any special hardware. I can use commodity hardware, which is nice to have in a commercial solution."
"Initiate on one node, and the RPM propagates automatically to all other nodes. ​"
"Vertica has a few features that I like. From an architecture standpoint, they have separated compute and storage. So you have low-cost object storage for primary storage and the ability to have several sub-clusters working off the same ObjectStore. So it provides workload isolation."
"Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability."
"The product's initial setup phase is extremely simple."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is excellent but very expensive. Working on the pricing could make it a better solution."
"I would like the ability to do more real-time type updates instead of batch-oriented updates."
"The feature updates on the on-premise solution come very slowly, and it would be great if they came faster."
"The reporting for certain types of data needs to be improved."
"I would like the tool to support different operating systems."
"The ETL designing process could be optimized for better efficiency."
"Some compatibility issues occur during deployment, so we need to build the product from scratch for some features."
"If the database is large with a lot of columns then it is difficult to clean the data."
"The biggest problem is the cost of cloud deployment."
"The integration of this solution with ODI could be improved."
"The documentation of Vertica is an area with shortcomings where improvements are required."
"Vertica seems to scale well, except for one use case where you are on a multi-node cluster. For example, if you had a nine-node cluster, one node goes down, then the eight nodes don't scale, because the absence of the node is very apparent, which is a problem. If you have nine nodes or multiple nodes, the whole idea is that if one of those nodes goes down, then you should not see an impact on the system if you have enough capacity. Even though we have enough capacity, you can still see the impact of the one node going down."
"In our company, we have faced difficulties in scaling the solution for certain use cases."
"I would personally like to see extended developer tooling suited to Vertica – think published PowerDesigner SQL dialect support."
"When it is about to reach the maximum storage capacity, it becomes slow."
"Support is an area where it could get better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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."
"Start with license per 1TB. Starting from hundreds of TB there is unlimited licensing to be considered. Move historical data to HDFS/S3 which are significantly cheaper or even free."
"Vertica has a perpetual license, but they are currently trying to convert all those licenses to subscription-based licenses on a yearly basis."
"The pricing could improve, it is a little expensive."
"The price could be cheaper and it is best to negotiate the price."
"It's difficult today to compete with open-source solutions. In these areas, there is a lot of competition and the price of this solution is a bit pricy."
"The pricing for this solution is very reasonable compared to other vendors."
"From a cost perspective, the software is less than most of its competitors."
"Work with a vendor, if possible, and take advantage of more aggressive discounts at mid-fiscal year (April) and fiscal year-end (October).​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
30%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Insurance Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
4%
 

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 do you like most about Vertica?
Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vertica?
The solution is relatively cost-effective. Pricing and licensing are reasonable compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with Vertica?
The product could improve by adding support for a wider variety of data types and enhancing features to better compete with other databases.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
Micro Focus Vertica, HPE Vertica, HPE Vertica on Demand
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
Cerner, Game Show Network Game, Guess by Marciano, Supercell, Etsy, Nascar, Empirix, adMarketplace, and Cardlytics.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse vs. Vertica and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.