Best Cloud Data Warehouse Comparison – Top Solutions for 2023

Data warehouses are increasingly becoming a necessity for businesses that want to make insight-driven decisions. A 2021 study by Flexera found that 54% of organizations now employ data warehouses as their preferred data solution. And out of that figure, over 30% of businesses witness exponential growth. 

Are you looking for the best cloud data warehouse in 2023?  

In this comprehensive cloud data warehouse comparison, we’ll compare and provide pros and cons for main data warehouses solutions – looking at Snowflake vs Redshift vs Bigquery, as well as Microsoft Azure, YellowBrick Data, and a few others. We’ll also cover their features, pricing, and performance to help you choose the best one for your needs. 

What is a Data Warehouse? 

Data warehouse cloud solutions are a central repository for all the data that an organization collects, processes, and analyzes. The key features of data warehouse applications include the ability to store multiple types of data in one place and the ability to create customised analytics or visualisation based on the stored data. 

Cloud vs Data Warehouse Platforms 

On-premise data warehouse platforms are still a very popular choice for many organizations. They allow you to keep your data in-house, and protected from external threats, and you can integrate new tools as they become available. 

On the other hand, cloud-based data warehouse services are convenient, and scalable, provide access to a wider range of resources and are often more cost-effective than on-premise data warehouses.  

But that’s not all. Studies have shown that cloud data warehouses perform so well and have a 99.99% data availability and fault tolerance at any given time. 

Best Cloud Data Warehouse Platforms for 2023 Compared 

Snowflake Cloud Data Warehouse 

Snowflake is a fully managed Cloud Data Warehouse that is available to customers as either Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Database-as-a-Service (DaaS). 

With Snowflake, businesses can deploy computing resources from several cloud suppliers simultaneously without impacting the performance of the data warehouse. 

Features: 

• Provides real-time, available data that can be shared across business units and stakeholders without having to copy or move existing data. 
• Apps like Tableau can be connected using ODBC, JDBC,.NET, PHP, and Node.js drivers. 
• 3rd-party connections for BI and ETL tools. 

• It is compatible with a wide range of third-party solutions, including those related to data management and analytics. 
• The “Time Travel” feature allows users to access historical data, useful for restoring a deleted file. 

Price: 

The cost of a snowflake is determined by how much data is stored and compute time. It starts at $2.00 per credit. 

Ease of Use: 

A key feature of Snowflake is its intuitive and easy-to-use user interface. The service allows you to quickly set up compute clusters of any size and spin them up and down automatically without impacting other tasks. 

Execution Speed: 

Snowflake has the ability to handle up to 60 million rows of data within 2 to 10 seconds. 

Popularity:  

Snowflake has a market share of 20.11% in the data-warehousing sector and is used by over 6,800 customers. It was named number one in Forbes’ “Cloud 100” rankings in 2020 and was recognized as a significant provider in 2021 Cloud Data Warehouse. 

AWS Redshift 

Redshift is a data warehouse service from Amazon Web Services (AWS). It’s a fully managed, petabyte-scale, fully relational database with many features for data warehousing and analytics. Redshift helps you to analyze large-scale data faster and works well when it comes to migrating data to the cloud in bulk. 

Features: 

• Limitless concurrency.
• Flexible querying of data with SQL (including big data).
• Near-unlimited agile scalability.
• Accommodates big data workloads with the Advanced Query Accelerator, result caching, materialized views, and ML-based workload management.
• Possibility to pay separately for compute and managed storage (RA3 node type).

Price: 

AWS Redshift lets you start small at $0.25 per hour and scale up based on the amount of data and the number of concurrent users you have. 

Ease of Use: 

Redshift has one of the easiest ecosystems on the market. Additionally, the AWS Management Console allows users to easily add, remove, or scale the Amazon Redshift clusters up or down with the click of a button. 

Execution Speed: 

According to Amazon, AWS Redshift is faster than Azure, taking 25 minutes to run the same set of queries that Azure did in 6.4 hours. 

Popularity:  

Amazon Redshift is a popular cloud data warehouse architecture used by at least 10,496 companies daily to analyze exabytes of data.  

Google Cloud Data Warehouse (BigQuery Data Warehouse) 

BigQuery is a scalable, serverless cloud data warehouse solution made available via the Google cloud platform.  

It includes an efficient in-memory data analysis engine, machine learning built-in, and robust streaming ingestion that takes and analyzes data in real time. With BigQuery, you can perform SQL queries on petabytes of data and receive results with the least amount of delay 

Features: 

• Apache Big Data ecosystem integration. 
• Data analysis across multiple cloud platforms. 
• Built-in ML Integration. 
• In-memory analysis. 

• Automated Data Transfer. 
• Support for Java, Python, T-SQL, C#, Go, PHP, Node.js, and Ruby. 

Price: 

BigQuery presently charges a fixed monthly fee of $0.02 per GB of stored data. Streaming inserts cost $0.01/200 MB, whereas query performance costs $5/TB, with the first TB/month free (pay-as-you-go). 

Ease of Use: 

BigQuery is relatively easy to use. With CSV, ORC, Avro, Parquet, or JSON as inputs, you can be up and running quickly. 

Execution Speed: 

Google BigQuery is one of the fastest analytics databases available. Using its SQL query engine, you can run queries on terabytes and petabytes of data almost instantly. 

Popularity:  

BigQuery is a well-known solution for large enterprises and is currently recognized as the eighth-best Cloud Data Warehouse solution by Peerspot. Enlyft estimates that 7,928 businesses use Google BigQuery as part of their IT stacks. In 2021, BigQuery was named a Leader in The Forrester WaveTM: Cloud Data Warehouse. 

Azure Cloud Data Warehouse (Azure Synapse) 

Azure Synapse is an unlimited analytics solution that combines Big Data analytics and business data warehousing. Serverless or provisioned resources can be used, allowing you to query data according to your needs. 

Features: 

• Always-on encryption 
• Azure Active Directory authentication 

• Incorporates cloud data warehousing, dashboards, and machine learning analytics in one workspace. 
• Supports many scripting languages, including Java, Python, Scala, .Net, R, SQL, T-SQL, and Spark SQL. 
• Allows for simple connectivity with Microsoft and Azure technologies. 

Price: 

On-demand price ranges from $1.20/hour (DW100c) to $360/hour (DW30000c). However, reserved instances can save up to 65%. (in a 3-year term). 

Ease of Use: 

Synapse, like SQL Server, is straightforward to understand and use, according to a user review on Gartner. Performance tuning remains a problem. 

Execution Speed: 

Azure Synapse Analytics is said to be 14 times quicker and 94% cheaper than other cloud providers. 

Popularity:  

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is frequently compared to Snowflake and is ranked third among the best cloud data warehouse services. It is also popular with major enterprises, with over 5349 customers worldwide. 

IBM 

With IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud, you’ll receive a fully managed, elastic cloud data warehouse that provides storage and compute scalability. You can boost your analytics and machine learning workloads by using its efficient columnar data store, adaptive compression, and in-memory processing. 

Features: 

• Lightning-fast speed 
• Compatibility with existing Oracle apps 
• Scale computing and storage independently. 
• Fine-grained access control 
• Highly available architecture with geo-replicated backups built-in 
• Compatible with on-premises data warehouses  

Price: 

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud comes in different tiers or plans, with the smallest Flex one starting at USD 898/month and the biggest Flex Performance for AWS at  USD 13,651/month. 

Ease of Use: 

According to a user review on Gartner, IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is easy to use and has an incredible support team. 

Execution Speed: 

IBM Db2 Warehouse on Cloud is fast, safe, and reliable. In fact, machine learning capabilities mean that users can speed up and improve analytics seamlessly. 

Popularity:  

IBM Db2 is one of the best solutions for data warehousing according to the Summer 2022 Grid Report. TrustRadius also rate it as the top cloud data warehouse for DBaaS, relational databases, data warehousing, and cloud data warehousing. 

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud 

SAP Data combines data and analytics in a multi-cloud solution comprising data integration, database, data warehouse, and advanced analytics for the data-driven organization. This software as a service (SaaS) enables you to have a better understanding of your company data and make informed decisions based on the latest information. 

Features: 

• Customized space management for your company’s requirements. 
• Access data from on-premises and cloud sources, including SAP and non-SAP. 
• Flexibility while using data builder to change data models. 
• Use your preferred SQL tool or BI clients, or connect your self-contained SAP Analytics Cloud solution. 

Price: 

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud starts at $1 per Capacity Unit / Month 

Ease of Use: 

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is easy to use and can be quickly incorporated into an existing ecosystem. Integration is simple for both cloud and on-premise systems.  

Execution Speed: 

SAP HANA Cloud powers SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. As a result, the processing time is cut, from hours to only seconds. 

Popularity:  

According to Slintel, the number of companies currently using SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is estimated at 1677. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has also earned the TrustRadius Awards for Best Value in the Cloud Data Warehouse, Best Feature Set, and Best Relationship categories. 

Teradata 

Teradata Vantage is a multi-cloud data platform that connects and analyzes all kinds of enterprise data – from lakes to warehouses to analytics. Vantage provides unlimited intelligence for your business supported by hybrid multi-cloud environments and flexible pricing.  

Features: 

• Ability to work with the Teradata SQL Engine. 
• Massive Parallel Processing architecture. 
• Excellent business intelligence and machine learning analytics. 
• Extremely scalable 

• Excellent dependability for data backup and recovery. 

Price: 

Teradata VantageCloud has several cloud pricing options. 

Pay only for what you require and receive the lowest possible cost at scale. It has a free trial so you can try it before you buy. 

Ease of Use: 

Based on user reviews on Capterra, Vantage scored 4.1 stars on ease of use. 

Execution Speed: 

According to a Capterra user review, no alternative can compete with Teradata’s parallel processing and speed. 

Popularity:  

In the 2021 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Cloud Database Management Systems for Analytical Use Cases, Teradata Vantage ranked first across all four use cases. 

In the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems, it was also recognized as a Cloud Database Management Leader. 

Yellowbrick Data 

Yellowbrick Data Warehouse is a contemporary, elastic data warehouse that works on-premises and in the cloud, with independent storage and computing. It provides simplicity, reliability, and scalability wherever you need it, whether in public or private clouds, or edge networks. 

Features: 

• Available on-premises as well as on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. 

• Can ensure sub-second response times when running complicated queries at a petabyte scale. 
• Able to offer business-critical services with thousands of concurrent users at an enterprise level. 
• Backups for data preservation and asynchronous replication for disaster recovery. 

Price: 

Standard Service Plan starts at $10,000/month for on-premise deployment or in the cloud. 

Ease of Use: 

Yellowbrick scored 9.7 on G2 for its ease of use. 

Execution Speed: 

Yellowbrick is extremely fast. It delivers parallel processing, columnar storage, and high-speed data transfers from disk directly to your CPU.  

Popularity:  

Yellowbrick has a net promoter score (NPS) of 91 and was awarded a “Contender” in the Forrester Wave for Cloud Data Warehouses in the first quarter of 2021. It was also recognized as an “Outperformer” by GigaOm in its 2021 Radar Report for Data Warehouses. 

Panoply 

Panoply is a cloud-based data management platform that combines data warehousing with AI-powered data processing to deliver a user-friendly data analysis infrastructure. It allows users to explore data using search query language, then analyzes and visualize it. 

Features: 

• Automates data analysis. 

• Manages all areas of data collecting and data warehouse management. 
• Its user-friendly interface allows you to analyze data without writing any code. 
• Its ETL partner network allows for integration with 200+ data sources. 

Price: 

You can choose between a monthly contract and an annual contract. The monthly contract starts at $399 per month for the lite plan. 

Ease of Use: 

Panoply is simple to set up and requires no technical knowledge. In fact, one user claims that Panoply is simpler than Redshift. 

Execution Speed: 

Panoply is known to be quite fast. It enhances query times by automating data-engineering maintenance operations and automatically optimizes data storage based on use statistics. 

Popularity:  

G2Crowd recognized panoply as a High Performer (the sole business in this category), and it also received top marks for “Fastest Implementation,” “Easiest Setup,” and “Most Implementable”, all in 2019. 

Oracle Cloud Data Warehouse (ADW) 

Oracle’s Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) is a cloud data warehouse that manages all data warehousing operations. Oracle ADW offers extensive automation of functions such as data security, administration, provisioning, scalability, and backups. 

Features: 

• Designed to load massive volumes of data and conduct sophisticated queries without the need for human intervention 
• Can be scaled automatically or manually 
• Delivers real-time statistic updates and automatic index management 
• Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS), Oracle Application Express (APEX), and Oracle Database Actions are among the built-in technologies. 
• Can be adjusted to include various user types and query numerous workloads. 

Price: 

The infrastructure you choose will affect the price of Oracle ADW. But the starting price is $1.3441 per unit. 

Ease of Use: 

Oracle ADW offers a number of unique characteristics that have significant advantages in terms of usability. Managing it takes a lot less time. 

Execution Speed: 

Exadata is used to run Autonomous Databases. This speeds things up considerably. Exadata improves database workloads without requiring any human intervention or modification of SQL queries.  

Popularity:  

Oracle products are well-known and trusted all over the world, and Oracle ADW is no exception. 

It was named by Wikibon as the most effective Tier-1 Cloud Database Platform. 

In the 2020 Gartner “Critical Capabilities for Cloud Database Management Systems for Operational Use Cases” study, it received the top scores across all four Use Cases. 

Conclusion 

As you can see, there are many excellent cloud data warehouse solutions available for businesses in 2023. It is therefore important to carefully consider the specific needs and requirements of your organization before making a decision. 

Some top options to consider include Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, and Snowflake. Each of these platforms offers a unique set of features and benefits, but your choice will depend on a variety of factors, including your budget, data volume and complexity, and desired level of performance and scalability. 

Confused about your options? Symphony Solutions can help.  

Not only can we help you determine the right solution that ticks all the boxes for your business needs, We will also deploy it, train your team and constantly check to ensure everything checks out.  

But thats not all. We can also help you transfer from one tech to another. This is a very important move when you have outgrown your current solution. 

Get in touch today for more information and a no-obligation quote. 

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