VMware Tanzu Greenplum Reviews

Greenplum is a distributed database that we used for data warehousing.

The parallel load features mean that Greenplum is capable of high-volume data loading in parallel to all of the cluster segments, which is really valuable.

The service management capabilities are good.

The external data integration with Parquet, Avro, CSV, and unstructured JSON works well.

It has an advanced query optimizer.

The initial setup is somewhat complex and the out-of-the-box configuration requires optimization.

- OS settings need to be tuned according to the Install guide.

- Only group/spread mirroring by gpinistsystem, block mirroring is manual (Best Practices Guide)

- Db maintenance scripts are not supplied - some of them added in cloud - need to be implemented based on the Admin Guide.

- Comes with two query optimizers, PQO is default, some queries perform better with the legacy planner, it needs to be set.

We have been working with Greenplum for about five years.

Greenplum is pretty stable.

This product is absolutely scalable. We have more than 400 users in our database.

The technical support is exquisite.

This is a company that really listens to its customers. I am very happy with our relationship.

Before I joined this company, I used different data warehousing solutions.

Making the transition to Greenplum requires a completely different mindset because it is massively parallel. It's more like a Big Data mindset, where you need to consider that you are distributing data between cluster nodes. It is not always straightforward to make the switch.

The initial setup is kind of complex. You need an expert to set up a Greenplum cluster.

It may not be possible to simplify the initial setup because there's an out of the box configuration and you can use it. I've actually seen companies using it for years and it works, but it didn't work optimally so they were not happy with the results.

You can set up Greenplum but you really need to read the manual and the installation guide. I've seen people skipping it and then complaining.

A few people are enough to maintain this product. If you want to have around the clock support then you will need a couple of people in different time zones, but generally, maintenance is straightforward.

We are currently in the process of upgrading from version 5.26 to 6.11 and I can already see a lot of improvements. I can't wait to try them. According to the roadmap, there are a lot of new improvements coming in the V7 version, which is due out next year.

My advice for anybody who is implementing Greenplum is that they really need an expert to assist them. They might hire consultants or grow experts in-house, although that takes time and it is not always straightforward. You can use Greenplum out of the box but to really leverage all of the capabilities, you definitely need to tune your system and also design your database objects.

When people think about a database they usually think about Oracle, Mircosoft SQL, or maybe MySQL. Greenplum is a distributed database that needs a completely different mindset. I think that when people start to use it, they don't really understand. For example, you cannot switch from Oracle to Hadoop because you will need the same change, but when they switch to Greenplum from Oracle, or just put data from Oracle to Greenplum, they don't consider this change as seriously as they would for Hadoop.

Overall, I am very happy with this product.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

It's super easy to deploy and it also supports different languages and analytics.

As of now, I honestly don't see any room for improvement. I am very happy with this solution, It's helped me a lot.

They should add more analytics. Their documentation could also be improved so that I don't have to bother my coworkers and tech support so often. 

They should advertise more and make it easier for consumers to leave feedback. That way, customers could read the reviews and decide if it's the right solution for them and their needs.

I have been using VMware Tanzu Greenplum for roughly one year.

VMware Tanzu Greenplum is both scalable and stable.

Their technical support is great.

The initial setup is very easy. Deployment took us roughly one or two days.

I would definitely recommend VMware Tanzu Greenplum. It's open-source and the support is great. It's also relatively cheap compared to similar solutions.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of ten — I really like it.

Our primary use case is for telecom customers.

In terms of most valuable features, I'd say Pivotal Greenplum's shared-nothing architecture.

I'd like to see a bridge between Greenplum and Hadoop.

We didn't have any issues yet with stability.

In terms of scalability, I just have one master and two segment hosts.

Initial setup is a little complex. It took around two weeks to deploy.

I prefer an open-source solution but Pivotal Greenplum is cheap and has many functionalities.

On a scale of 1 -10 I'd rate it a 6.