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Databricks vs IBM Cognos comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM SPSS Statistics
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (3rd), Data Science Platforms (10th)
Databricks
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (1st), Streaming Analytics (1st)
IBM Cognos
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th), Reporting (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Data Science Platforms
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

AbakarAhmat - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 21, 2023
Enhancing survey analysis that provides valued insightfulness
I use it to analyze questionnaire surveys related to a product, solution, or application, such as open data services, which I provide to consumers and end-users. These surveys contain evaluation assessments, and I use SPSS to analyze the responses The most valuable feature is its robust…
Dunstan Matekenya - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 10, 2024
Process large-scale data sets and integrates with Apache Spark with notebook environment
I primarily use Databricks to process large-scale data sets with Apache Spark. My main use case is processing large data sets, such as 600 GB or 800 GB Databricks integrates natively with Apache Spark, which I use as a processing engine for large-scale datasets. This native integration is one of…
Carlos Larrad Salgado - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 27, 2022
Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department
I don't like that when we use Colab packages, we get less functionality. For example, you can make groups of data with Excel or with the data sets from the packages, but when you use the Colab packages directly, you can only group the data when you analyze it with Analysis Studio. I think Cognos needs to improve more on this functionality. The user experience is also very important. Cognos is not very easy to understand sometimes, especially when they change the layout but keep the functionality the same. The help is not very graphic and they have no examples. Cognos has to make a big effort to help with understanding the functionality by improving the documentation. There is a lot of documentation, but the examples are hard to find and they should make their help section easier to understand for non-technical users.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The features that I have found most valuable are the Bayesian statistics and descriptive statistics."
"The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities."
"The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important."
"It is perfectly adequate if all you need are the results and not the trail of evidence."
"in terms of the simplicity, I think the SPSS basic can handle it."
"The most valuable features are the small learning curve and its ability to hold a lot of data."
"It has the ability to easily change any variable in our research."
"The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can into multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."
"When we have a huge volume of data that we want to process with speed, velocity, and volume, we go through Databricks."
"Databricks gives us the ability to build a lakehouse framework and do everything implicit to this type of database structure. We also like the ability to stream events. Databricks covers a broad spectrum, from reporting and machine learning to streaming events. It's important for us to have all these features in one platform."
"I like cloud scalability and data access for any type of user."
"The fast data loading process and data storage capabilities are great."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"The solution is very simple and stable."
"I like how easy it is to share your notebook with others. You can give people permission to read or edit. I think that's a great feature. You can also pull in code from GitHub pretty easily. I didn't use it that often, but I think that's a cool feature."
"I like the ability to use workspaces with other colleagues because you can work together even without seeing the other team's job."
"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."
"The comprehensiveness or broadness of the software functions or business intelligence functions that it provides is valuable. It is also quite easy to use and user-friendly."
"Previously, we were doing static reporting. Management would request a report, and it would take staff a week or more to provide it. With Cognos, we have dynamic reporting, and it has reduced both reporting and decision making times significantly. With the solution's dashboard, the company's management team has updated records at their fingertips. This means that they can directly access the data they need to make decisions."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"Report Studio: This is the most powerful and sophisticated tool for professional reporting."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
 

Cons

"Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like."
"The technical support should be improved."
"I know that SPSS is a statistical tool but it should also include a little bit of analytical behavior. You can call it augmented analysis or predictive analysis. The bottom line is it should have more graphical and analytical capabilities."
"IBM SPSS Statistics does not keep you close to your data like KNIME."
"The design of the experience can be improved."
"Better documentation on how to use macros."
"In developing countries, it would be beneficial to provide certain features to users at no cost initially, while also customizing pricing options."
"Most of the package will give you the fixed value, or the p-value, without an explanation as to whether it it significant or not. Some beginners might need not just the results, but also some explanation for them."
"Databricks would benefit from enhanced metrics and tighter integration with Azure's diagnostics."
"I'm not the guy that I'm working with Databricks on a daily basis. I'm on the management team. However, my team tells me there are limitations with streaming events. The connectors work with a small set of platforms. For example, we can work with Kafka, but if we want to move to an event-driven solution from AWS, we cannot do it. We cannot connect to all the streaming analytics platforms, so we are limited in choosing the best one."
"The integration features could be more interesting, more involved."
"I would like more integration with SQL for using data in different workspaces."
"The Databricks cluster can be improved."
"Databricks' performance when serving the data to an analytics tool isn't as good as Snowflake's."
"It would be great if Databricks could integrate all the cloud platforms."
"The integration and query capabilities can be improved."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"There are a lot of limitations with the out-of-the-box tool."
"They were lacking in the initial phases of development in the area of big data, and they still need to improve that aspect of the product."
"Need improvement towards Visualization."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"Compared to Tableau and PowerBI, the IBM interface is easier to use. However, the drag-and-drop functionality isn't as straightforward. Formatting is also more challenging in the cloud than in other applications, like Power BI. Also, if you encounter an issue, it takes more time to resolve it on the formatting side."
"I would like to see is more easy building, movement in the reports, and dashboard functionality within reporting. Overall more simple elements within reports. If the elements are simple then you don't have to render a full page, but you can move separate parts in the page."
"The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"More affordable training for new staff members."
"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."
"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."
"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."
"The pricing of the modeler is high and can reduce the utility of the product for those who can not afford to adopt it."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."
"The solution is a good value for batch processing and huge workloads."
"There are different versions."
"Databricks are not costly when compared with other solutions' prices."
"We pay as we go, so there isn't a fixed price. It's charged by the unit. I don't have any details detail about how they measure this, but it should be a mix between processing and quantity of data handled. We run a simulation based on our use cases, which gives us an estimate. We've been monitoring this, and the costs have met our expectations."
"The price of Databricks is reasonable compared to other solutions."
"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."
"The solution uses a pay-per-use model with an annual subscription fee or package. Typically this solution is used on a cloud platform, such as Azure or AWS, but more people are choosing Azure because the price is more reasonable."
"We implement this solution on behalf of our customers who have their own Azure subscription and they pay for Databricks themselves. The pricing is more expensive if you have large volumes of data."
"My company uses IBM Cognos with another IBM product, so I think only one license is used."
"It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."
"The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
"The solution is affordable."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
University
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
57%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?
The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?
While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment. However...
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?
In some cases, the product takes time to load a large dataset. They could improve this particular area.
Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or ...
How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?
We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designe...
Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?
Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analyti...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik ...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older version...
 

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics
Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA
Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Knime, Microsoft and others in Data Science Platforms. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.