Denodo Reviews

I work for a company that provides financial solutions to banks and advisors. We need to send data everyday to different third parties in different file formats, like pipe delimited, comma separated, fixed width, xml, etc. Previously, we used to generate those files with the data using PL/SQL. After looking at the performance issues and the complexity, we started using Denodo.

We run scheduler jobs in Denodo, and the job will in turn run the VQLs. VQLs will gather the data based on the business rules and business logic. Finally, it will spool the data in a predefined file format, and then the file will be delivered to the respective recipient. Basically, we generate interfaces using Denodo.

Caching was very valuable to us.

In PL/SQL, first you need to gather all the data and then start writing the file, but in Denodo you fetch the data and write the data simultaneously. So, for example, if you have 1 million or 2 million records, you don't have to wait to fetch all of the 2 million; you can keep on fetching and writing in the file simultaneously.

Tasks such as conversion of a date format or conversion of a number format that can be done in a very easy way in different languages, like SQL or Oracle, are not so easy to do in Denodo.

For example, if you want to convert a date from one format to another, in Oracle it's pretty easy; in Denodo, however, it requires so many lines of code. Simple things that can be done very quickly in other database languages require more lines of code in Denodo.

The scheduler UI in 8.0 is not as good as that in 7.0. We have thousands of jobs, and if you search one job, get it, and click on it, when you come back, your search will be gone. You have to do your search all over again. The 7.0 UI was much better.

We have been using Denodo from the last quarter of 2018.

Right now, it's deployed on-premises, but in the next few months, we are planning to move it to the cloud.

It is scalable.

We have three administrators and about 20 to 25 developers working on this tool.

We have biweekly meetings with Denodo staff. Apart from that, whenever we have any issues or concerns, we just raise the ticket on the Denodo portal, and we get a response. The technical support is good.

The initial setup was okay for us and was not complicated. We created a couple of virtual machines; we got a 4-core license. We installed two VMs, and one was always active. The second one was always down. Whenever we needed the second one, we brought it up. Otherwise, we mainly worked on one VM.

Once the VMs and all the machines and infrastructure were ready, the installation and setting up of all the configurations took two to three days maximum to complete.

For maintenance, we have three persons, two on-site in the US and one offshore.

We deployed Denodo ourselves.

Before Denodo, our interfaces were running for six to seven hours to generate a file. After writing the same thing in Denodo, now those interfaces are generated in 25 to 30 minutes. So for us, we came down from seven hours to 30 minutes, and that is our ROI.

For us, the cost has been okay. Also, there are no additional costs; it's just the standard licensing fee.

First, understand your use case properly, and then analyze the tool and see whether or not the tool is going to perfectly fit your use case. Denodo is mainly for data virtualization, though it has the functionality to create files and write data in the files. However, given my four years of experience that is not the best use case for Denodo. For data virtualization and fetching data from multiple systems and data sources though, Denodo is a good tool.

I rate Denodo at six on a scale from one to ten.

I use the tool to integrate and standardize data. It converts all kinds of data. It can convert non-relational data to relational data. It can create a standardized way to consume data.

The API generator helps generate APIs. The integration with Presto and other MPPs is valuable. It also provides integrations with Lucene and Elasticsearch. The tool has zero data replication. We can consume data fast. The product democratizes data. People talk about data democratization. Providing access to data is one thing, but the solution gives data in a format that people can consume.

Data transformation must be improved. Denodo is not the best tool for data transformation.

I have been using the solution for one and a half years.

The product is pretty stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

The product is highly scalable. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

The technical support is very good. I rate the support an eight and a half out of ten.

Positive

The setup is simple and straightforward. The deployment takes about two months. We required two data architects to deploy the product. The vendor maintains the solution. The tool can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud, or in multi-cloud environments.

By using more data in decision-making, our strategy became more accurate. Eventually, we can replace a lot of processes and a lot of systems that we have.

Starburst and Tray.io are too technical. Denodo is very user-friendly. Denodo is a technological tool for non-technical people. It is very easy to use. Denodo is way more mature than Starburst and Tray.io.

We connect all the data sources with Denodo, and Denodo connects with the metadata. We do not move the data. We embrace the fact that data now resides in distributed data sources. Through the metadata, we create a catalog. The catalog pretty much centralizes all our data management. Through the catalog, all the information is standardized.

We can visualize the information, manipulate the data, and integrate the catalog with data-consuming systems like Power BI, Tableau, and Apache. We do not centralize data. People think we need to get all the data outside the sources and put it in a repository to manage data properly. It is not necessary. We can integrate and create the catalog without replicating or moving any data. We can integrate with all the data-consuming systems we have and create a logical data layer.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use this solution as an access layer and virtualization layer. We connect to a number of sources and then use Denodo as the main access layer for consumers or for reporting. I have also personally used it for integrating sources for some of our critical reports which was a use case outside the regular virtualization capability. We calculated some of the key metrics for our critical components. I'm a data solutions architect and we are partners with Denodo. 

The strength of Denodo is that we can connect to a lot of different sources; it easily integrates and directly connects. It's great that it can flatten a JSON file and present connectors with a view format for downstream consumers. I would say reading or connecting to various sources and presenting a tabular view is an awesome capability. It can also be done with PDFs. The product has a good technical data catalog. 

I think Denodo needs a bit of work with performance management. When data sets are huge and a heavy query has been pushed out to the database, it can take quite some time to get what you need without clear optimization techniques. It requires clearer instructions. Some features should be added on the performance management and optimization side of things. I'd like to see them provide more on data governance. In addition, it would be good to have some support for analytical queries in SQL as that can be a challenge at times. There is currently no advanced analytic support for the SQLs.

I've been using this solution for two years. 

Denodo as a platform is stable overall. It can be a challenge if there are hundreds of users running a lot of queries, and then one of the queries suddenly sucks up the resources. When that happens, the system fails and there can be a risk to the source. 

If you have the product on the cloud, it's easily scalable. The risk is that because Denodo connects itself to some source databases, if there are multiple users,  then fired queries are delegated to the source which is a risk to the source. Denodo itself can scale up or down if it's on the cloud. We have close to 100 users on a daily basis. 

We have a separate operations team but I have connected with Denodo support and they were helpful. They were knowledgeable about the product. We were able to directly interact with their technical teams. So anytime we raised a ticket, we got a fairly quick reply and they were able to resolve the issue promptly. In the early days, our operations team connected with the Denodo technical team once a week to run over any issues. They were quite helpful with that.

We also use DBT, which is a data build tool with a similar function in terms of creating views on SQLs and then deploying on Snowflake. Both DBT and Denodo are popular because both of them are heavily SQL-based. If you only use Snowflake, DBT is preferable to Denodo. But if you're integrating data from different sources, Denodo is likely preferable.

I wasn't involved with the company's implementation. Deployment was pretty straightforward when I implemented it on my laptop. There wasn't much to it; you install it, and it starts working.

This is an expensive solution although I'm unsure exactly what our licensing costs are. Denodo is set up in nodes and each node is extremely costly. 

We're still trying to find a place for Denodo within the organization's architecture. If you have a very clear use case, it's a good product. In terms of data virtualization, I think it's very well-rounded.

I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

Our ETL team was preparing the data warehouse, and we used Denodo as an intermediate solution.

It can support a number of data sources, and it can pull flat files, from cloud-based databases or from those on-premises. Denodo can pull from any data source and interface with the view. Then, we can publish the view. 

Though it's not a full ETL solution, teams downstream can utilize it, prepare it, and consume it in a secure way in multiple formats.

User-specific security at the column and row levels needs to be improved. Instead of applying security at every individual level, it would be better if it were at the group or tier level. It will save a lot of time.

Denodo could also improve the UI, data governance, and cataloging.

I've worked with Denodo for two years. It is on the database cloud, and it is a Linux based OSv.

We are satisfied with the stability now. We had some connectivity and driver-related issues earlier, but Denodo's technical support team helped us resolve them.

The architecture can support horizontal and vertical scalability. You can expand your servers if required, or you can expand vertically and also increase the size of the system.

In my company, in India there are 200 to 300 users. We have expanded to the US and plan to increase usage.

Denodo's technical support team helped us a lot. They resolved all our issues, such as connectivity and driver issues, because they have experts.

We bought both TIBCO Data Virtualization and Denodo. TIBCO is a strong product and was good, but the cost was an issue. The cost was the main factor and resourcing and support also came into the picture. TIBCO did not have much of a global presence. Given Denodo's licensing model, support, and market value, they opted to go with it.

Initially, we had a lot of trouble, but later on, our DevOps team prepared a script. Then, everything went well. Now, it takes half an hour to set up a new environment.

We have two people who handle the deployment and maintenance.

We handled the deployment in-house.

Cost wise, on a scale from one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, Denodo would be at three. We get all the features in a bundle.

They initially evaluated TIBCO Data Virtualization. However, Denodo was much more flexible and worked cost wise as well.

Deonodo is Virtualization for Logical Data Warehouse but is not a full ETL solution. You can use it if your dataset doesn't require that much ETL cleansing. On top of that, if you want to quickly show your data and use your data for  analytical purposes, then this is the best tool. We can connect to data sources on the go and can perform data privacy, data governance, etc. This is the best tool compared to other similar tools available on market. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at eight.

We are currently using it in our company, and it's our data virtualization tool. We fall under the federated analytical model. Basically, we have data that moves into our warehouse, and from the warehouse, when we want to build our reports, we use it. So, we are mainly using it for reporting purposes at this point. Instead of building aggregated views in our warehouse, we put that on the Denodo layer.

We aggregate the data in our Denodo layer. Because Denodo is a virtualization tool, we try not to cache the data, but we've cached it whenever needed. Our dashboards usually run once a day or twice a day. So, we refresh the data once or twice a day. Sometimes, we also refresh every hour, but mostly, we refresh once or twice a day. For that, we don't need the data materialized in a view. We don't need the data to be there. We just create these views on Denodo. We have Power BI and Qlik Sense, and we just use those tools to pull the data from Denodo.

There are other uses as well that we are thinking of as a company. We have business users who do want to look at the backend of what's going on. They may just want to run something like a quick analysis. For example, for a question, they just want to go take a look at the actual data. For that purpose, we can give these analysts access, and they can go in and take a look at that. Eventually, we want to go to a place where we want to enable self-service analytics for our business users. We are thinking that Denodo could help us in that direction. I know different companies use Denodo for different purposes, but we are using it on the IT side. Currently, we are using it mainly for reporting purposes, but we could also move towards self-service and make it available to our business users as well. That's for the future. We haven't done that yet. For now, we are only doing it at the BI layer.

One thing that we have noticed is that when you have a BI tool, you end up building a lot of the logic in the BI tool, but as a company, every company wants to be tool agnostic because today, you could be in the Qlik Sense, and tomorrow, you may decide to go with Tableau or something else that is there. If you have put a lot of logic within the tool, transitioning or moving away from one BI tool to another tool becomes a very intensive process. By keeping the logic in Denodo, you can move to any tool. That's what we have done at this point because we used to have Cognos in my company before. When we did the migration from Cognos to Power BI, it was quite intensive for us because a lot of the logic was sitting in SQL queries within Cognos. To move to Power BI, we had to do a lot of backward thinking. These reports were built more than 5 years ago, or even 10 years ago, and the people who built them were no longer with the company. The logic was pretty much gone. We didn't have good documentation, but now, after we have put the code in Denodo, we have visibility. Any developer, not a business analyst, can come and take a look at that code and discern how the data is moving from the warehouse to Denodo. All that Power BI or Qlik Sense is doing is just pulling the data from that view. We can do averages and other calculations in the tool, but at least our aggregation and the logic are in the Denodo layer, and then going forward, we can take it to any tool.

Last year, they moved from version 7.0 to 8.0, and version 8.0 gives a lot of flexibility.

I would like it if we could pull the data model or export the data model because Denodo has, based on how you build, something called associations. The data model gets very confusing when you go look at it. It depends on how you define it, but it's really huge. I wish there was a way to export it into Visio. It could be that they already have a way to do it, and I don't know, but it would be much easier for the architects and even for the developers to look at it than scrunching it into the screen and expanding every small portion of it. If there was an easy way to export the Denodo model into another modeling tool and view it, it would be great.

We are also trying to use Denodo as a cataloging tool so that we can put proper definitions, and once they are made available to our business users, it becomes easy. Using the Denodo layer, we can write queries to pull data. There is a virtualization layer. So, we can interact with it just like any other database. If there was a way to write a query and make my query public to other users so that they don't have to come in and write their queries, it would be great. There should be reusability of something that I did. For example, if I'm working in the healthcare industry and I want to get a view of the patient count for the whole year, I should be able to write a query and make it public so that whoever wants to use it can use that query instead of creating the same query again.

I have been working with this solution for a little over three years.

It has been pretty stable. We've had some minor issues here and there, but we do have an admin who is assigned to this. We have a full-time paid Denodo admin. If there is a problem, he is very fast at getting onto the problem. He connects with Denodo and then comes back with solutions. Overall, we've had minor things here and there. Sometimes, we have to use certain Java functions to figure it out. There is also a learning curve for some people because not everybody knows Java coding.

We recently upgraded to Denodo 8.0. We pushed the upgrade for a very long time because my team is the biggest consumer of Denodo. So, we had to look at our timelines to do it, but it was very smooth. Denodo helped us really well in the upgrade, and my team and our admins were also on top of everything. The whole Denodo 7.0 to 8.0 upgrade went smoothly. It went so smoothly that I just couldn’t believe it.

So far, it has been good. We have between 50 to 100 users. It is used on a daily basis.

I'm not super familiar with that mainly because our admin is the one who takes care of it, but he hasn't complained. So, their support should be okay, but it's hard to know how good or bad their support is because we have a full-time admin.

I haven't used any other solution. I have used virtual data lakes. On Hadoop, I have used that. One thing that I felt is that there is a learning curve for Denodo. It's not something that people just start using. They can learn it, but it's going to take some time for them to get to know it. For example, if you know SQL, Oracle, or Teradata, the structure is pretty much the same, but I cannot have a developer come in and start working on Denodo from next week. It's not possible. They need some time.

When I came to the company, the initial setup was already done. It was already there, but from what I have heard, Denodo has been very helpful with the initial setup. We did buy a package so that we get the initial help for setting up everything.

I am not super familiar with the pricing, but so far, it seems good. We have been happy. We haven't seen any problems.

The only time we had to pay extra was during the upgrade. We didn't upgrade at the time they told us to upgrade, and we had to pay extra to keep the service. They had stopped the support for the older version and moved to the newer version. It was not their fault. It was our fault because we didn't get on board quickly.

There is a learning curve, and you would need at least two to three weeks. You can make it very complex, and you can make it very simple. I know different people do it in different ways. Ours was a little bit of a structured process, which could also be the reason why it takes some time for people. We don't just approve everything through Denodo. We have a review committee, and the review committee decides and approves or denies a new table or a new view. We have a review process. That's one of the things that has helped in keeping Denodo's environment clean.

I would rate it a 7 out of 10. The reason is that in our company, we haven't explored everything that Denodo can offer. The tool is good, but we've only scratched the surface, and it may have additional functionalities that we haven't used. The more we use Denodo, the more we'll like it.

I work with an insurance company and our main reason for using Denodo is to bring together all our data into one platform in the cloud. The company has very diverse data sources including data stored in the cloud, XML files, Db2 and SQL databases, and SAM / VSAM files on legacy mainframe platforms. Thus, management decided that they wanted all the data in one place by connecting these different data sources for better visualization and reporting.

It's really working well for us and we are using it for both of our claims centers with our claims management solution as well as our premium management solution. One instance of Denodo is for the underwriting team and the other is for the actuary team. In total, we have around 45 people using it.

We were originally using the solution on-premises but we are now using the cloud version deployed on Azure.

There are a lot of benefits of using Denodo in our company. Suppose, as an underwriter, you are approving a policy for a customer; typically, you will have to do a number of SQL queries or perform macros on Excel to find out information such as, "How many years has this customer been with the company and how is their claim history?" or "How is this customer's business actually doing?" There are many things that underwriters want to check before they approve any underwriting amount. And this means, for any approval, they're taking up to three or four hours, especially in a commercial insurance setting with all the changes that have taken place during Covid.

Lots of companies have filed for bankruptcy or are not doing as well as they should be, so there are many changes that the underwriting teams have to take into account. These teams could be doing great business by writing the right amount for premiums for the company or for the client, and they have been having a lot of difficulties reaching certain data points in order to give their final verdict.

However, now that everything is in front of them in one virtualized screen, they can quickly see all the necessary data such as claims files, history files with previous premium history, how much lifetime value the client has for the company, etc. They can obtain all these pieces of information from a single search and then make an appropriate decision to approve or deny, all within 15 to 20 minutes. Considering that the time to do such things has come down to 20 minutes from three hours, you can tell how much time has been saved by using Denodo.

Also, some of the underwriters are over 60 years old, having been in the company for 35 years or more, and they don't love technology that much. Yet, with the training that we've given them, they're slowly starting to enjoy it and are now able to appreciate how much time it has saved them. They are very aware that Denodo is helping them, even though they would have been happy to stick with Excel.

We initially thought that we'd be using more features of Denodo than we are currently. And, in fact, there is a large number of features, ranging from data visualization to data virtualization and connecting to different non-connectable parameters (such as connecting to many different types of files, which other products don't allow you to do as easily as Denodo does). However, after we moved to the cloud with Azure, we mainly used only the data virtualization features of Denodo, while opting for Power BI when it comes to visualization with dashboards and reporting.

So while we may not be using all the features of Denodo at this time, we have found the data virtualization features to be very useful in helping us connect our data sources together, bringing all our data into one platform.

As a company, we first did a proof-of-concept for about four months to make sure the product was a perfect fit for us or not, and beyond that I have only used Denodo for another year or so, so I know that we haven't used the product to its fullest yet. Indeed, a lot of Denodo has changed since we had our first presentation on it with the Denodo sales team who gave us a rundown of all the features. Nevertheless, there are multiple ideas I could suggest in terms of improvement.

First of all, the visualization and reporting could be better. Of course, the data virtualization is good, but the data visualization could be improved with regards to the real-time dashboarding of the graphs, pie charts, etc. For the real-time data, the dashboard should preferably be updated automatically every hour. Let's say, as a CEO or CFO, I just want to know how much premium the company will get at any hour of the day. This data should be readily available on the dashboard. This is largely why we stick with Power BI's dashboarding features (besides the simple fact that Power BI works well hand-in-hand with Azure), and why we still haven't used Denodo's data visualization features as much as the data virtualization features. 

Another area we have been struggling with is the integration of Denodo with both Salesforce and MuleSoft, which we use to track the customers in our sales system, such as when sending insurance quotes. When we first tried to integrate Salesforce, we found that there was some type of version incompatibility. We had a hard time talking with Salesforce about this, but eventually we upgraded our version and the integration was resolved. Yet, this was a challenge that I feel we didn't need to go through, as we were not able to quickly map out the issue. And with MuleSoft, we have not been able to integrate it properly at all.

I have also seen our users complain about the availability of data sources, where they are sometimes not able to connect to all the sources they need. This kind of complaint, however, is difficult to diagnose, and I don't know for sure whether it is due to how we have Denodo set up in the company, or whether it's an actual issue with Denodo itself. These complaints were mainly made during the first few months of our usage, so it is possible that the problems stemmed from a lack of knowledge on how to use Denodo correctly, especially since the individual feedback would generally be something vague like, "Okay, I'm not able to do this". To help resolve these complaints, I would suggest that Denodo work on better documentation and perhaps some kind of virtual training.

For example, there's an insurance software company called Guidewire, and when we first brought Guidewire into the company they sent us a lot of training videos even before the actual integration took place. For Denodo, it would be beneficial to make sure that the team that will be using it has some kind of training on how to use the product at least a month beforehand, and there could even be some kind of feedback or Q&A sessions to go along with the training. If Denodo were able to provide this kind of training, it would be very helpful to users in insurance and banking companies because the staff are typically older and not always technically-minded. They say, "You are pushing us too hard", so they need encouragement when it comes to adoption of a new software product.

I have been working with Denodo for about two years now.

We don't have many complaints about the stability of Denodo. So far it's behaving well.

Denodo is very scalable. That's the best part of it; you can add extra features and also integrate the product with other software.

In terms of users, we have about 45 people working on Denodo, mostly simultaneously.

The support, so far, is good. When opening tickets, there isn't a problem with response times, and there are no complaints from users internal to the company in this regard.

With one of our main goals being to collect data through SQL, we have also done reporting with BO (Business Objects) and Cognos, which gets delivered to the operations team. However, before Denodo, I hadn't any experience with data virtualization, which is what we primarily use it for.

One thing that I am happy about is that Denodo now has an API available. The development team can easily build on the API and expose it so that other teams can start using it. With this, we can take all data from different sources and put it in the cloud, and then from the cloud we can build our own product and perhaps even put our own dashboarding on top of that.

It was actually one of the senior IT directors (who recently joined us from Infosys and has a lot of experience with financial clients) who recommended Denodo for our company. He really pushed us on it, emphasizing its cost-effectiveness, so my VP and team all agreed to go for the proof-of-concept. After doing the POC, we really liked the product and simply went for it.

The deployment was good, but finding the right environment to deploy to isn't too easy. For every new product, we do an infrastructure assessment and we did the same for Denodo. Initially, it took some time to make it happen with all the approvals needed, but in terms of complexity, it wasn't too bad. I would rate the complexity of the deployment a 6/10.

Our proof-of-concept took place over the course of about four months, and the POC version was very easy to handle since we got a lot of support from Denodo during that time. Their team was always talking to us and came in with two or three guys at a time. When someone is there helping you, backing you up, you feel comfortable. Of course, it took a bit of time to get all our staff on board, but it was easy enough.

When we went with the full and final rehearsal, it actually took more time to work than expected to make everything ready. This took about two to three weeks for us, because we first needed the results from the security team, infrastructure team, payment team, and so on. There were many people involved in the deployment, both internally and externally, so it did take a while to get settled.

We had both in-house teams and personnel from outside the company perform the complete implementation.

The licensing is taken care of by the procurement team, but I think the pricing was good. I believe our company got a good discount on the market price for the first two or three years. After that, we are going to be paying in full.

Talking with my manager and others, nobody has complained about the pricing so far which is a positive sign.

Denodo is a good product with superior stability and scalability, and it can be very helpful to the various teams of a company in different ways. However, even though products like Denodo are a good choice for many buyers, you shouldn't forget to undergo the proper training and analysis on how to make the product most useful in your specific circumstances. You need to know your processes well, including your weaknesses and the particular challenges that your company needs to overcome. If you can cover these areas, you will find Denodo to be an excellent solution.

I would rate Denodo a seven out of ten.

In the past, transforming data from databases to other tools was a tedious and time-consuming process. Denodo eliminates that hassle, saving me time and money.

So, Denodo improves data integration processes. It reduced the time to go live and required fewer human resources to make data accessible across the company.

Moreover, it supports our reporting needs. I use Bar BI for reporting, and Denodo's ability to connect directly to native data sources without complex configurations is a great feature.

I like the integrated views. They're incredibly useful, along with the overall integration capabilities.

The logical data warehouse functionality is fantastic. It truly stands out.

The ClearOptimizer and Virtual Cache are great features. They work together seamlessly to optimize performance.

I'm waiting for them to introduce the generative AI capabilities they mentioned would be available by the end of the year. That would be a game-changer.

Moreover, I would like to see the ability to utilize vector databases. 

For some internal strategies, I need to publish data into vector databases. Denodo currently integrates with ChatGPT, but the ability to manage and utilize them directly within Denodo would be a significant improvement.

I have been working with it for a year now. 

We never had performance or scalability challenges with Denodo.

The customer service and support are fantastic. 

I used SSIS as an ETL tool and some IBM staging tools, but not extensively.

I used SSIS at my previous company and then switched to Denodo here.

The time to market is significantly faster with Denodo, both for deployment and publishing updates. Additionally, the web service capabilities are fantastic. We can deploy any web service in just minutes without complex development or security concerns.

If you need immediate access to data (within 3-5 days), Denodo is a great solution. However, for complex data silos, I recommend trying a demo for a week or two before making a decision.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Currently, we are using it on Azure. We have around four VMs with Denodo divided into development, quality, and production environments. We have various configurations. I don't really work developing the queries on Denodo, it's more on the administration side. I have managed the scalability, the configurations, and providing the environment.

Currently, we use Denodo mostly to query data from SAP. We have a very old SAP inside of Schaeffler that doesn't have encryption. To retrieve this data from other people, to use the same data, we use Denodo to make this encryption. Then we have a few databases, and we can create base views based on the SAP tables. 

In some use cases, they also create web services based on these tables as well. They use it a bit as an ETL tool. They use for data scouting. For example, we have one tool that was developed inside of Schaeffler called Discovery, where we used Denodo to get the metadata from basically all the different systems that we have.

It's been useful to have the same language to query manager-friendly databases. That would be the main benefit. The second one is that we can create web services without any programming based on the base use that we create on Denodo. 

Getting queries is great. They are really good. You can basically write SQL statements, and it can convert to MDX queries or to MongoDB queries, or any kind of data source. We have many different data sources. You just use the requisite language, which translates to all the underlying data sources. That's the best thing that we have on Denodo.

In general, it's good for us to make tests so we can scout the data. We can make POCs easily. 

It's not really scalable. We have a couple of problems with a high demand for the servers. It also doesn't have very good integration with Git, so it's not possible to work with branches with the developers. When it goes to production, then we cannot use it anymore.

The git configuration really should be improved. It would help a lot. Then the developers could have different values of the same project and use, for example, GitFlow for the projects. That would be amazing. If they had it, the scalability would be very good. And we can actually have one external metadata database for starting the Denodo configuration. However, it's very slow. 

If it were possible to work around Kubernetes, for example, it would help. They have some implementations. However, it doesn't really work as expected.

The solution is expensive as you are charged by the CPU. 

I've been using the solution for three years. 

For production the stability is okay since we don't have a lot of things going on. In production, we have a couple of years of use cases. Of course, there is a high demand for CPU and memory. However, in development, we have a lot of issues based on the problems we've had with the Git integration. There are a lot of conflicts, there are a lot of problems.  

If you have just the applications pointing to Denodo and running the specific query, it's okay.

The solution does not scale well at this time. 

We have a lot of users. They don't do the deployments. However, they do development in the development environment, of course. I would say we probably have 100 users.

I don't like the support. They always blame the customer. For example, sometimes we have some bugs on Denodo and open a ticket. They ask you to run thousands of tests to ensure that it's not a bug, however, in the end, it is a bug, and we knew since the beginning. Sometimes it takes a week for them to say, "Yeah, okay, it's really a bug." 

Then, God knows when they will give an update as they have one voting system at the service desk. Other customers need to vote on the same bug or the same feature that you requested, and then it will go in the next release. 

It's very hard, for example, to have a call with them. It's very hard to get support when it's a problem with the tool. They always say that the customer doesn't know how to use the tool and it's not so nice.

I was in touch with a company called Starburst and CData. They seem to do nearly the same stuff. We just had to try the tool, to install and try to run the same things on Denodo. I didn't really have time for that, so I cannot say a lot. However, it could be an alternative.

It's very easy to set up the product. We have the solution manager on Denodo, so you can basically create a revision. Suppose you have the database from one environment, for example, from development. In that case, it will generate basically a backup, and it will deploy this backup in the other servers that you want.

We have three people that handle the implementation and deployment. It's me and two students in my team who are learning how to do this stuff. We basically have three DevOps engineers who are in charge of that.

The deployment of Denodo is very quick. It takes less than a minute.

In terms of maintenance, usually, we don't have many problems. Sometimes we face issues with credentials, however, the procedure that we need to establish is not yet well-defined. That said, usually, in production, we hardly ever have problems.

I don't have details of how much it costs, however, it's expensive. 

You pay per CPU. If I have 10 CPUs or 12 CPUs, it increases the price.

We're a customer and end-user.

We're using the latest version.

We have a contract until the end of 2023. Then, maybe after that, we won't want to keep this technology. That said, we don't have any replacements so far. We have to run some POCs and tests and plan a migration since we have around 46 use cases on top of Denodo. It needs to be planned if we decide to switch.

A potential new user should run a lot of tests before they pay a license. For example, try the support and see if the relationship works. There are some customers that are very happy. We have not been as lucky. Some are very happy, some of them they are not so happy. It depends on what your usage will be.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.