Amazon Redshift vs Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon Redshift and Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Warehouse solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Redshift vs. Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"I found the Amazon Redshift computing services easy. I found the computing instances the most incredible in the solution.""I have primarily used the Redshift Spectrum feature and found it most valuable.""Easy to build out our snowflake design and load data.""The most valuable feature of Redshift is its cluster.""The solution's flexibility is its most valuable feature. It's also easy to scale and has relatively painless pricing.""I like it because the usage is very similar to Microsoft SQL server. The structure of the query and the temporary tables are very similar.""It's very easy to migrate from other databases to Redshift. There are migration tools dedicated for this purpose, enabling migration from other databases like MS SQL directly to Redshift. The majority of the scripts will be automatically transposed.""If the analyst knows SQL, which is comfortable and easy to use to go between all of these tool stacks, I think it's reliable. It's a secure and reliable data warehouse."

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"I like Data Warehouse's data integrity features. Data integrity is what databases are made for as opposed to spreadsheets.""Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse provides good firewall processing in terms of response time.""It handles high volumes of data very well.""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 a very stable database.""It is not a pricey product compared to other data warehouse solutions.""The most valuable feature for me is querying."

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Cons
"They should provide a better way to work with interim data in a structured way than to store it in parquet files locally.""It would be good to see Redshift as a serverless offering.""Amazon should provide more cloud-native tools that can integrate with Redshift like Microsoft's development tools for Azure.""The speed of the solution and its portability needs improvement.""Improvement could be made in the area of streaming data.""Pricing is one of the things that it could improve. It should be more competitive.""There is some missing functionality and sometimes it's so difficult to work in. We need to convert these functionalities using VACUUM inside Amazon Redshift and then it causes some complexity.""If you require a highly scalable solution, I would not recommend Amazon Redshift."

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"The reporting for certain types of data needs to be improved.""We'd like to see it be a bit more compatible with other solutions.""The product does not have all of the features that the native products have.""The only issue with the product is that the process is very slow when we have a huge amount of data.""I would like the ability to do more real-time type updates instead of batch-oriented updates.""They need to incorporate a machine learning engine.""SQL installation is pretty tricky. The scalability and customer support also should be improved.""We find the cost of the solution to be a little high."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Redshift is very cost effective for a cloud based solution if you need to scale it a lot. For smaller data sizes, I would think about using other products."
  • "If you want a fixed price, an to not worry about every query, but you need to manage your nodes personally, use Redshift."
  • "BI is sold to our customer base as a part of the initial sales bundle. A customer may elect to opt for a white labeled site for an up-charge."
  • "One of my customers went with Google Big Query over Redshift because it was significantly cheaper for their project."
  • "Per hour pricing is helpful to keep the costs of a pilot down, but long-term retention is expensive."
  • "It's around $200 US dollars. There are some data transfer costs but it's minimal, around $20."
  • "The best part about this solution is the cost."
  • "The part that I like best is that you only pay for what you are using."
  • More Amazon Redshift Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I think the program is well-priced compared to the other offerings that are out in the market."
  • "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."
  • "All the features that we use do not require any additional subscription or yearly fees."
  • "Technical support is an additional fee and is expensive."
  • "The solution's pricing is fairly decent for organizations with huge data sizes."
  • "The tool could be expensive if we need to manage a lot of data."
  • "They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments."
  • More Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different… more »
    Top Answer:Redshift Spectrum is the most valuable feature.
    Top Answer:Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse provides good firewall processing in terms of response time.
    Top Answer:They offer an annual subscription. The pricing depends on the size of the environments.
    Top Answer:Sometimes, the product requires rolling back to its previous version during a software update. This particular area could be enhanced.
    Ranking
    4th
    Views
    8,821
    Comparisons
    6,585
    Reviews
    24
    Average Words per Review
    474
    Rating
    7.8
    8th
    out of 33 in Data Warehouse
    Views
    638
    Comparisons
    516
    Reviews
    12
    Average Words per Review
    379
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft PDW, SQL Server Data Warehouse, Microsoft SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, MS Parallel Data Warehouse
    Learn More
    Overview

    What is Amazon Redshift?

    Amazon Redshift is a fully administered, petabyte-scale cloud-based data warehouse service. Users are able to begin with a minimal amount of gigabytes of data and can easily scale up to a petabyte or more as needed. This will enable them to utilize their own data to develop new intuitions on how to improve business processes and client relations.

    Initially, users start to develop a data warehouse by initiating what is called an Amazon Redshift cluster or a set of nodes. Once the cluster has been provisioned, users can seamlessly upload data sets, and then begin to perform data analysis queries. Amazon Redshift delivers super-fast query performance, regardless of size, utilizing the exact SQL-based tools and BI applications that most users are already working with today.

    The Amazon Redshift service performs all of the work of setting up, operating, and scaling a data warehouse. These tasks include provisioning capacity, monitoring and backing up the cluster, and applying patches and upgrades to the Amazon Redshift engine.

    Amazon Redshift Functionalities

    Amazon Redshift has many valuable key functionalities. Some of its most useful functionalities include:

    • Cluster administration: The Amazon Redshift cluster is a group of nodes that contains a leader node and one (or more) compute node(s). The compute nodes needed are dependent on the data size, amount of queries needed, and the query execution functionality desired.
    • Cluster snapshots: Snapshots are backups of a cluster from an exact point in time. Amazon Redshift offers two types of snapshots: manual and automated. Amazon will store these snapshots internally in the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) utilizing an SSL connection. Whenever a Snapshot restore is needed, Amazon Redshift will create a new cluster and will import data from the snapshot as directed. 
    • Cluster access: Amazon Redshift provides several intuitive features to help define connectivity rules, encrypt data and connections, and control the overall access of your cluster.
    • IAM credentials and AWS accounts: The Amazon Redshift cluster is only accessible by the AWS account that created the cluster. This automatically secures the cluster and keeps it safe. Inside the AWS account, users access the AWS Identity and IAM protocol to create additional user accounts and manage permissions, granting specified users the desired access needed to control cluster performance.
    • Encryption: Users have the option to choose to encrypt the clusters for additional added security once the cluster is provisioned. When encryption is enabled, Amazon Redshift will store all the data in user-created tables in a secure encrypted format. To manage Amazon Redshift encryption keys, users will access AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS).

    Reviews from Real Users

    Redshift's versioning and data security are the two most critical features. When migrating into the cloud, it's vital to secure the data. The encryption and security are there.” - Kundan A., Senior Consultant at Dynamic Elements AS

    “With the cloud version whenever you want to deploy, you can scale up, and down, and it has a data warehousing capability. Redshift has many features. They have enriched and elaborate documentation that is helpful.”- Aishwarya K., Solution Architect at Capgemini

    The traditional structured relational data warehouse was never designed to handle the volume of exponential data growth, the variety of semi-structured and unstructured data types, or the velocity of real time data processing. Microsoft's SQL Server data warehouse solution integrates your traditional data warehouse with non-relational data and it can handle data of all sizes and types, with real-time performance.

    Sample Customers
    Liberty Mutual Insurance, 4Cite Marketing, BrandVerity, DNA Plc, Sirocco Systems, Gainsight, Blue 449
    Auckland Transport, Erste Bank Group, Urban Software Institute, NJVC, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Tata Steel Europe
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Retailer11%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization48%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Computer Software Company7%
    Manufacturing Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Healthcare Company18%
    Hospitality Company12%
    Pharma/Biotech Company12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Insurance Company7%
    University6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise34%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business10%
    Midsize Enterprise53%
    Large Enterprise37%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business34%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise51%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise66%
    Buyer's Guide
    Amazon Redshift vs. Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Redshift vs. Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Amazon Redshift is ranked 4th in Cloud Data Warehouse with 24 reviews while Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is ranked 8th in Data Warehouse with 12 reviews. Amazon Redshift is rated 7.8, while Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of Amazon Redshift writes "A cost-effective warehouse solution that needs to improve the access limitations". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse writes "User-friendly UI and good support". Amazon Redshift is most compared with AWS Lake Formation, Snowflake, Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, Vertica and Teradata, whereas Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse is most compared with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, Oracle Exadata, SAP BW4HANA, Snowflake and VMware Tanzu Greenplum. See our Amazon Redshift vs. Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse report.

    See our list of best Data Warehouse vendors and best Cloud Data Warehouse vendors.

    We monitor all Data Warehouse reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.