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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs SAP HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cloud Pak for Data
Ranking in Data Virtualization
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (17th)
SAP HANA
Ranking in Data Virtualization
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (4th), Relational Databases Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Virtualization category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 17.8%, up from 13.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HANA is 16.2%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Virtualization
 

Featured Reviews

Murali B - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines, but catalog searching needs to be improved
If people are with the existing stuff, I would definitely suggest they go with IBM Cloud Pak for Data. I usually recommend the solution for the financial sector, where I worked for about ten years. I worked with IBM for almost eight years. Unless they want to migrate to a new product completely, I recommend IBM Cloud Pak for Data to explore current business. It is easy to integrate the tool with other solutions. Except for metadata queries, metadata validations, and metadata integrations, I don't see any issues with the solution. I would recommend the solution to other users if it supports their existing infrastructure. Some people don't want to put their data in the cloud because they are concerned about how the data is secured with encryption and decryption. For such cases, we have listed out all the pros and cons of the solution to suggest them to users. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Jayarami Reddy Pujeri - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive system with real-time analytics for versatile industry applications
Our primary use case is working with various clients in industries such as pharmaceuticals and other services. We support clients as implementers of SAP HANA, providing expertise in functionality, finance, logistics, and processes The solution is very user-friendly and supports all kinds of…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."
"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."
"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."
"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."
"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."
"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."
"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."
"The solution can easily be modeled."
"Integration is the most valuable feature we use SAP HANA for."
"In comparison with other DMS solutions, it offers good performance."
"What I like most are the dashboards and pervasive analytics."
"It's stable and reliable."
"All features are valuable."
"SAP HANA's most valuable features are monitoring, reporting, and price and stock control."
"This is a feature-rich product and I like all of them."
 

Cons

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."
"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."
"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."
"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."
"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."
"Cloud Pak would be improved with integration with cloud service providers like Cloudera."
"What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated."
"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."
"There could be better management for faster updates, last year there were some changes in India to the e-invoicing feature."
"The product is very demanding on memory requirements."
"The user experience should be better. Its user interface is not good. I also don't like the transition concept."
"You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables."
"Ease of use could be improved in SAP HANA. I like SAP because SAP solutions can be used by anyone, which means even laymen can start working on SAP tools, but in SAP HANA modeling, you'll need to know some other technologies and sequel scripting, and you need a separate skillset, so if you don't have the skillset, you won't be able to work on SAP HANA. Making SAP HANA low-code would make it even better."
"The pricing is expensive."
"The high price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"SAP HANA is not strong like Oracle when it comes to finance. They are only strong with the logistic business project."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"The solution is expensive."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."
"It's quite expensive."
"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."
"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution."
"There is an annual license to use SAP HANA."
"SAP HANA is expensive, but unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives."
"SAP HANA is an expensive product."
"We pay annually for the license of the solution."
"The tool has a high price. I rate the solution’s pricing, one on a scale of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap."
"It is expensive."
"The licensing could improve."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors. The pricing also depends on the number of users.
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
Previously, we used to extract the information in the DSX and the XML formats. IBM Cloud Pak for Data exports information mostly on the ISX, which is an encrypted format. The only challenge with th...
What are the biggest benefits of using SAP HANA?
Based on my work with SAP HANA, the biggest benefit that it can bring to your business is total data management. This product is by SAP - a company that serves almost all needs a client may have co...
Is SAP HANA’s customer and technical support reliable?
We have been using SAP HANA for a fairly short period of time and have only taken advantage of their customer support. So far, we have not had issues that required specialized help from technical s...
Is SAP HANA difficult to set up and start using?
SAP HANA is fairly easy to set up, however, I do not think a complete beginner can do it. You certainly need some preparation - either you need to have experience with similar solutions, or with ot...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. SAP HANA and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.