Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
9th
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
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (7th), Relational Databases Tools (10th), Message Queue (MQ) Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 4.4%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Tanzu Data Solutions is 4.3%, down from 5.0% 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

"Its direct approach is the most valuable. You get more real time and capabilities than BW."
"I like the tool's robustness and security."
"The most valuable feature is the dashboard."
"The most valuable features are the speed of reporting and the HANA database."
"It provides the functions in a way that even a less technical person can do the modeling."
"We can get good visualization and less redundant data."
"We benefited from BW/4HANA's ability to utilize predefined content inside. We didn't need to start from scratch."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is asynchronous calls, which are easy to configure."
"Large amounts of data can be moved pretty fast using the solution."
"I like the high throughput of 20K messages/sec, and that it supports multiple protocols."
"The solution's best feature is its exceptional speed, delivering efficient utilization of resources."
"Very fast for query processing."
"Some of the most valuable features are publish and subscribe, fanout, and queues."
"Helps us to achieve large-scale analytics."
"It can be configured to be a very fast message broker. I like the stability, the built-in admin tools and plugin architecture."
 

Cons

"The tool is not cloud-compatible."
"The dashboard should be simplified and made easier for exploration and decision making."
"It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support."
"The tool is not easy to use for an end user."
"The solution is not scalable. It does not have a data streaming feature as well."
"The solution is not easy to implement. It requires a lot of learning at the beginning."
"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."
"They have taken out a few BW functionalities when they redesigned this. The way of multi-dimensional thinking and star schema got a little bit lost. It may be because of the cost, but certain functionalities that were previously implemented from the BW side should come back again in the whole product. It is a young product. It is version 2.0. In time, I'm pretty sure they will come back again because otherwise, it limits the potential of the product, and I have to do a lot of modeling towards that direction. For me, the analytics focus is too much. It is not cube-oriented in that way, so its functionality is limited. It is not really technically limited in the back end; it is more limited in the front end. It has a data-mining mindset for SQL developers. The navigational attributes should be easy. It needs to be built in models. I see the data mark cube or understanding that the composite provider needs to be models in a cube coming back. The multi-dimensional star schema approach and the reporting need to be done as well as possible to leverage the star scheme below. This is definitely not understood by many consultants and even composite providers for star schema. They always think in terms of flat tables, which is limiting. You need to build the right dimensions, objects, and so on. If you can build this in BW4HANA, then you have this understanding that BW4HANA is not forcing you in this direction, but it should force you a bit better in this direction. Maybe a few elements which were in use in BW should come back again. It would help the community to determine the direction to build on the cube. You can have maybe 50 elements, and then you can expand it to what you need by leveraging navigation. So far, this functionality is a little bit limited in the tool, and it is not thought through, but I think it will come. They should also be adding more capabilities for the transformation between different objects. In BW, this is currently limited, especially towards composite providers. It is a bit complex basically in the building. You have to have a lot of knowledge as well as know how to do it better because it is a bit different from BW. There is not too much expertise currently in the consulting markets. Many are trying to build something, but it may be based on their knowledge of what they have from the BW and HANA side. You have to find the right mix from both of them at this time. We also have HANA Native. These are our two different sync sources basically, and we have approaches to connect nicely, but it is hard to manage your team because a lot of coaching is required."
"This solution struggled with multi-regional synchronization."
"The product needs to focus on offering more use case documentation because browsing the internet to find it can be a process filled with struggles."
"One of the disadvantages, not a disadvantage with the product itself, but overall, is the expertise in the marketplace. It's not easy to find a Greenplum administrator in the market, compared to other products such as Oracle."
"They need to enhance integration with other Big Data products... to integrate with Big Data platforms, and to open a bi-directional connection between Greenplum and Big Data."
"Lacks sufficient inbuilt machine-learning functions for complex use cases."
"VMware RabbitMQ's configuration process could be easier to understand."
"I saw some limitation with respect to the column store, and removing this would be an improvement."
"It will be very useful if we could communicate with other database types from Greenplum (using a database link)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses."
"In general, it's quite 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."
"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."
"As an investment, the solution is very expensive."
"Price wise, this solution is on the higher side."
"SAP BW/4HANA is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Since the tool is an open-source product, there is no need to pay anything."
"It is the best product with best fit for price/performance customer objectives."
"The product is available for free use since it is an open-source technology."
"The price is pretty good."
"Pricing is good compared to other products. It's fine."
"We are using the open-source version of this solution."
"It is an open-source product."
"On a scale of one to five, with five being the most competitive pricing, I would rate this solution as a four."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
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: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.