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Oracle Database Appliance vs SAP BW4HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Oracle Database Appliance
Ranking in Data Warehouse
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP BW4HANA
Ranking in Data Warehouse
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Oracle Database Appliance is 5.4%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 4.6%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Charu Mazumdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplifies database management tasks and provides high availability and disaster recovery
Oracle Database Appliance has simplified our database management tasks. Our clients are using the solution for high availability and disaster recovery. Our overall experience with the solution was good, especially the DR. Oracle Database Appliance's integrated storage solutions have enhanced our data management. Oracle Database Appliance's integration with other solutions was straightforward. We faced compatibility issues while moving from another device to this one, and the integration was not seamless. I would recommend the solution to other users. Overall, I rate the solution an 8 out of 10.
Csaba Grünblatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities
SAP BW4HANA improved data reporting processes significantly. Performance on HANA database is good. Well-built data models ensure consistent and fast reporting. Reusable models enhance efficiency, even for SaaS services. In-memory computing, especially since HANA, has greatly improved performance in data analysis tasks. It eliminates the need for complex optimizations like creating indexes or aggregates. Queries that once took minutes now run in seconds, enabling real-time reporting, especially for SAP ECC on HANA. SAP BW4HANA's integration capabilities are streamlined with a simplified architecture and more virtual layers. You can directly load data into optimized layers, reducing the need for extra storage. The introduction of Open ODS Views allows for additional logic and master data inclusion, making integration faster and simpler. The learning curve for SAP BW4HANA is much faster now compared to ten years ago, thanks to abundant free resources like documentation, videos, blogs, and learning journeys provided by SAP. It is simpler to learn with these resources available compared to the past when you had to attend courses and rely on books. I would recommend SAP BW4HANA to users looking to implement it, especially if they want to keep their systems on-premise and already have SAP systems. Those with BW on HANA have two choices: BW4HANA or DataSphere, depending on their cloud strategy. If they are advanced in their cloud strategy and want to migrate off-premise, DataSphere is a good choice. However, for a robust solution on-premise or in a private cloud, BW4HANA is an excellent option. Overall, I would rate BW4HANA as a nine out of ten. It performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities. We use it traditionally, with complex transformations and models but with less emphasis on real-time processing and third-party sources.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Easy management (it saves a lot of installation and patching time)."
"The solution is simple to use and easy to maintain."
"We value the appliance architecture with its “everything-in-a-box” highly standardized setup."
"The initial setup was straightforward and quick - I was able to configure everything within an hour."
"The main feature is the management and manageability of the tool. We can create a VM on a laptop within a couple of clicks."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Database Appliance is the ease of management."
"The product is very light."
"The solution is stable. The product is scalable. The technical support is very helpful. The initial setup is straightforward. I consider the product a strong solution for our customers."
"The solution seamlessly integrates with SAP products."
"The solution saves time and cost."
"You can do hierarchical alert slicing and dicing out-of-box, which is not available in other solutions. I haven't come across that in Oracle or any other software provider."
"I like the tool's robustness and security."
"We benefited from BW/4HANA's ability to utilize predefined content inside. We didn't need to start from scratch."
"The solution's performance is really good. Also, it's easy to operate, easy to administer, and relatively simple to install."
"It is a stable solution...The initial setup was easy."
"The most valuable feature is the dashboard."
 

Cons

"Oracle Database Appliance could improve by having better integration."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"In my opinion only one single command should be used for all ODA models, as it’s confusing."
"It isn't as popular as AWS, GCP, or Azure as it lacks scalability and cloud-native services like containerization."
"Virtualization features could also be improved. A web-based GUI would be a good start."
"The tool's setup can be easier."
"I would like it if the scalability could be increased without having to change versions."
"The solution's initial setup is not easy."
"From a technical perspective, it could be even more related to legacy systems. The connectivity requirement is quite high and requires systems that are up-to-date."
"It's complicated to use. You need to spend a lot of time learning about it. The interface could be improved. It's not intuitive to build a data model and use their ETL tools."
"It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support."
"Challenges arise with real-time client requirements when clients are accustomed to Microsoft Excel's extensive features for data analysis. They expect similar flexibility and customization in the solution, particularly regarding headers displaying keys and descriptions or just keys. Achieving this level of customization can be challenging, and it's an area that may need improvement."
"Support could be more reliable."
"The monitoring for the remodeling feature is very difficult to understand."
"The cost of the product might be an area that might introduce some restrictions or limitations to customers, making it one of the aspects where improvements are required."
"I would like more integration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don’t know ODA and alternative system prices. But Oracle the database license is quite expensive and a lot of my customers plan to migrate to open source databases like PostgreSQL."
"The solution may be expensive, but when we consider the problems it solves, the stability it provides, and the fact that we don't have to buy separate parts and assemble them into a system, it becomes more affordable."
"Oracle Database Application's support and maintenance are included in the contract."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing seven and a half or eight out of ten."
"Get benefit from the capacity-on-demand features. License your cores according to your licenses."
"The price of the solution should be less expensive. However, they will increase the price more."
"Oracle Database Appliance is a very expensive solution. If you have opted for the on-premises licenses from Oracle, then you have to pay yearly. If you have opted for the cloud subscriptions offered by Oracle, then you can pay either monthly or yearly."
"You must pay for the license."
"For the on-premises version of the product, the solution offers a perpetual-based licensing model to its users. In general, SAP offers a monthly subscription-based licensing model to its users."
"For some, the rates offered by SAP can be costly while for others it may seem cheap. The price ultimately depends on how you have negotiated your contract with SAP."
"The tool is affordable."
"It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure."
"We started as early birds from the SAP side. We got this entire suite for free. I cannot really talk about the price because we didn't have to pay anything."
"We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses."
"The price is high and currently only affordable for large organizations."
"In general, it's quite expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Oracle Database Appliance?
Oracle Database Appliance provides high stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Database Appliance?
I have heard from colleagues that Oracle is very costly compared to open databases like PostgreSQL. I cannot personally comment on it.
What needs improvement with Oracle Database Appliance?
The scalability part is missing. It isn't as popular as AWS, GCP, or Azure as it lacks scalability and cloud-native services like containerization. The Oracle cloud hasn't reached the level of offe...
What do you like most about SAP BW4HANA?
One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integrati...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BW4HANA?
We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses.
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done.
 

Also Known As

X5-2
SAP BW/4HANA
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LifeLock, Incarlopsa, Al Yusur Industrial Contracting
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Database Appliance vs. SAP BW4HANA and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.