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SAP BW4HANA vs VMware Tanzu Data Solutions 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

SAP BW4HANA
Ranking in Data Warehouse
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Tanzu Data Solutions
Ranking in Data Warehouse
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (7th), Relational Databases Tools (11th), Message Queue (MQ) Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 4.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Tanzu Data Solutions is 4.1%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Sushma Polavarapu - PeerSpot reviewer
Create essential reporting scripts with simplicity but has some operational challenges
We mainly create functions and scripts required for reporting The product is not complex; I do not have to create stored procedures, functions, or views. It's just simple to use. There is general room for improvement. I have been using it for five years. I have faced stability issues, mainly…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"SAP BW4HANA aids in managing data from ER to front-end analysis, contributes to ROI, and fosters business growth understanding. I like that the solution breaks down components to a very granular level, allowing for customization and implementation based on specific requirements. The solution is stable. The solution is scalable."
"Technology-wise, it is a very robust tool."
"I like the reporting features of the solution."
"The product is stable."
"Provides a great analytics engine with all the capabilities."
"It's quite scalable."
"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 integration. We don't need to rely on historical data alone; we can provide reporting and features based on real-time information."
"The solution is based on SAP ERP, so there's some business content already included. For customers who use SAP ERP, SAP BW4HANA is a good choice for their DW implementation."
"With VMware Tanzu Greenplum, one can make a huge database table and analyze the queries by adding in the SQL command. Some hint or command for the query goes over the multi-parallel execution."
"The product has been stable and I have never faced any kind of problems with it."
"After creating a RabbitMQ service, they provide you with a sort of web management dashboard."
"The product is not complex; I do not have to create stored procedures, functions, or views."
"The solution has really cool features to use. Its management console is excellent. You can utilize plugins to view the performance of the whole service on one network."
"We chose Greenplum because of the architecture in terms of clustering databases and being able to have, or at least utilize the resources that are sitting on a database."
"RabbitMQ will help to remove a lot of the complexities and create a loosely coupled codebase."
"It's one of the fastest databases in the market. It's easy to use. From a maintenance perspective it's a good product. The segmentation, or architecture of the product is different than other databases such as Oracle. So even in 10 years, the data distribution for such segments will not affect other segments. The query performance of the product, for complex queries, is very good. It has good integration with Hadoop."
 

Cons

"Support could be more reliable."
"There's one area where the other vendors have an upper edge, which is the data lake. I think SAP is trying to figure out whether to stick with IQ, their own data lake solution, or push customers toward customer-preferred vendors, like Azure Data Lake, AWS, or any other provider."
"The monitoring for the remodeling feature is very difficult to understand."
"Other competitors provide better solutions that are more up to date with current technology."
"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."
"The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done."
"The product needs to improve with more performance and fewer data layers."
"One thing that could be enhanced in SAP BW4HANA is the user interface for process chains."
"We needed to configure additional plugins. While it was relatively easy to do this on-premises, it became more challenging in the cloud."
"The product is pretty hard to configure."
"The initial setup is somewhat complex and the out-of-the-box configuration requires optimization."
"VMware RabbitMQ's configuration process could be easier to understand."
"The installation is difficult and should be made easier."
"If messages pile up until the space of the memory is full, then basically, the cluster goes down, and someone has to log in through the backend and purge all messages."
"RabbitMQ is clearly better supported on Linux than it is on Windows. There are idiosyncrasies in the Windows version that are not there on Linux."
"VMware Tanzu Greenplum needs improvement in the memory area and improved methods for quick access to the disc. So, one of the quick goals of Greenplum must work on enhancing access to the disc by adding hints in the database."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure."
"The cost of ownership is higher. It's resource-intensive, and naturally, that increases costs."
"It is an expensive product."
"We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses."
"The cost and licensing depends on how the customer is going to use the solution."
"In general, it's quite expensive."
"are using the open-source version, which can be used free of cost."
"We are using the open-source version of this solution."
"It is the best product with best fit for price/performance customer objectives."
"This is an open source solution."
"The pricing is okay."
"The solution's pricing is cost-effective as it does not involve significant expenses. Licensing is required only for the server, while clients do not need any licensing. Therefore, it proves to be a cost-efficient option."
"It’s an open-source solution."
"The price is pretty good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Healthcare Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
How does IBM MQ compare with VMware RabbitMQ?
IBM MQ has a great reputation behind it, and this solution is very robust with great stability. It is easy to use, simple to configure and integrates well with our enterprise ecosystem and protocol...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Greenplum?
It’s an open-source solution. There are no expenses for using it.
 

Also Known As

SAP BW/4HANA
Greenplum, Pivotal Greenplum, VMware RabbitMQ, VMware Tanzu GemFire, VMware Postgres
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
General Electric, Conversant, China CITIC Bank, Aridhia, Purdue University
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BW4HANA vs. VMware Tanzu Data Solutions and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.