SAP IQ vs SQL Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP IQ and SQL Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Relational Databases Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed SAP IQ vs. SQL Server Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 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
"The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves moving data from SAP HANA to SAP NLS, which is essentially archiving. This allows us to retain access to the data via a link whenever it is required.""Unbeatable speed and compression with a colummn-structured relational database.""Valuable features for us include the compression, speed, fast response time, and easy object maintenance.""The column-based technologies (basically all the database for ITP) are used for SAP IQ. It is used as a column-based solution.""Columnar storage allows high compression, high load rates and high query performance.""It is very robust for ad hoc DW queries and its columnar compression is unique and valuable."

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"The pricing of the product is very good.""SQL Server's performance is fine.""It's a very capable, efficient, price-performant OLAP server.""For me, the initial setup is very easy as I have years of experience with the product.""The solution has a user-friendly environment and supporting functionalities. It also has great memory and processing databases.""SQL Server's most valuable features are that it is a large number of community resources to help you out. that's one, and then it is quite powerful.""The solution is easy to use.""The solution has a reliable database."

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Cons
"Concurrency and functional error messaging.""I think the universe should be part of the Sybase IQ tool set.""The organization who owns the product does not support it well and appears not to be doing significant development for the future.""The room for improvement would be the marketing of the product, because this product is much better than advertised.""Multiplex is very problematic. There are consistency problems in the metadata, meaning it is possible to lose metadata consistency. You should make sure you have healthy backups.""The solution works best when combined with other SAP solutions. If the environment has other systems other options might be better."

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"SQL Server doesn't have proper bitmap indexing, proper columnar databases, or proper implementation of materialized views.""The reporting services of the solution (SSRS and now Power BI) are the less valuable items of the SQL Server suite.""Its security can be improved. When you look at the Windows environment, it isn't the most secure environment. It is exposed to so many attacks. They continuously need to improve the security of the platform on which it sits.""There are a few use cases where we do need the Active-Active options instead of Active-Passive, yet those kinds of options are not available for Microsoft.""Only one CPU core can be used. Can’t move a database between servers easily. Can’t use triggers.""The pricing could be more affordable.""SQL Server could integrate better with other platforms.""Support could be improved."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Evaluate all options; check to see if you need expensive add-ons."
  • "Negotiate based on the features required."
  • "Negotiation is very important."
  • "The only costs after standard licensing fees are for add-ons and upgrades."
  • More SAP IQ Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The free version is cumbersome to use and maintain. But $5000 for a licence is more expense than the benefit I would get from a licensed version. A licence might be worth the price to simplify management and speed up searches."
  • "​We are a Microsoft shop, so we use Active Directory. That integrates well with this product, but we did look at Oracle. We also looked at IBM. This was the best price point for us for what we were getting.​"
  • "​It has the easiest licensing."
  • "This is a downside of enterprise Microsoft products."
  • "Currently, almost all of my machines are in Azure and I think it is the best way of licensing now (VM+software)."
  • "The price has been going higher and higher. The market is quite price sensitive."
  • "My advice is quite straightforward. If you know the number of users who really and truly need access to the Server then it is a no-brainer. If you do not know, then get the basic package and minimum licenses and start from there. Needless to say, users can develop/use data structures outside and then deploy onto the Server."
  • "The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
  • More SQL Server Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The primary benefit of SAP IQ is its ability to limit the expansion of the costly SAP HANA database, which has limited storage capacity. This necessitates a form of data management that involves… more »
    Top Answer:The solution’s pricing is high, but coverage is good with high implementation with customer requirements.
    Top Answer:The product should add more business intelligence factors.
    Top Answer:SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the prices… more »
    Top Answer:SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a high… more »
    Top Answer:My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    475
    Comparisons
    372
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    559
    Rating
    7.0
    Views
    33,485
    Comparisons
    25,100
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    361
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Snowflake logo
    Compared 28% of the time.
    SAP HANA logo
    Compared 15% of the time.
    Apache Hadoop logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    SAP BW4HANA logo
    Compared 12% of the time.
    MariaDB logo
    Compared 19% of the time.
    SAP HANA logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    Oracle Database logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    IBM Db2 Database logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    LocalDB logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Sybase IQ
    Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
    Learn More
    Overview

    SAP® IQ software delivers speed and power for extreme-scale enterprise data warehousing and analytics. Its column-oriented, grid-based massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture and patented data compression and indexing technologies enable companies to exploit the value of huge amounts of data at the speed of business.

    SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.

    The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.

    The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:

    • SQL Server Developer
    • SQL Server Expression
    • SQL Server Standard 
    • SQL Server Enterprise

    The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.

    The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:

    • Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.

    • Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.

    • Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.

    • String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.

    • System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.

    SQL Server Services

    SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:

    • Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
       
    • Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.

    • Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication. 

    • Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.

    • Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.

    • Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.

    • Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.

    • Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.

    • Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.

    • Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.

    SQL Server Benefits

    The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:

    • The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.

    • Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.

    • The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.

    • SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

    • The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.

    • SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.

    • The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.

    Reviews from Real Users

    A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature

    Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.

    Sample Customers
    ASR Group, Citrix, State of Indiana, PocketCard Co. Ltd.
    Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm55%
    Marketing Services Firm9%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Insurance Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm37%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Healthcare Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization42%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise67%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise80%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise39%
    Buyer's Guide
    SAP IQ vs. SQL Server
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP IQ vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SAP IQ is ranked 21st in Relational Databases Tools with 17 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 245 reviews. SAP IQ is rated 8.0, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of SAP IQ writes "Easy to use, highly stable, but integration could improve". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "A stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything". SAP IQ is most compared with Snowflake, SAP HANA, Apache Hadoop, SAP BW4HANA and SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, Oracle Database, IBM Db2 Database and LocalDB. See our SAP IQ vs. SQL Server report.

    See our list of best Relational Databases Tools vendors.

    We monitor all Relational Databases Tools 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.