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SAP HANA vs Spark SQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP HANA
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (2nd), Embedded Database (4th), Relational Databases Tools (3rd)
Spark SQL
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Md Ashraful  Islam - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful in-memory processing capabilities and advanced analytics, enhancing real-time decision-making, but with challenges in reaching SAP for support
Continuous improvement is essential for these systems to stay competitive and relevant in the market. Currently, for support, we rely on local implementers who act as intermediaries. This makes it challenging for me to reach out to SAP directly. If, for instance, I encounter any issues during the ongoing project, expanding it to other companies may pose a challenge without direct access to SAP support.
SurjitChoudhury - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the flexibility to handle large-scale data processing
My experience with the initial setup of Spark SQL was relatively smooth. Understanding the system wasn't overly difficult because the data was structured in databases, and we could use notebooks for coding in Python or Java. Configuring networks and running scripts to load data into the database were routine tasks that didn't pose significant challenges. The flexibility to use different languages for coding and the ability to process data using key-value pairs in Python made the setup adaptable. Once we received the source data, processing it in SparkSQL involved writing scripts to create dimension and fact tables, which became a standard part of our workflow. Setting up Spark SQL was reasonably quick, but sometimes we face performance issues, especially during data loading into the SQL Server data warehouse. Sequencing notebooks for efficient job runs is crucial, and managing complex tasks with multiple notebooks requires careful tracking. Exploring ways to optimize this process could be beneficial. However, once you are familiar with the database architecture and project tools, understanding and adapting to the system become more straightforward.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution offers advanced features that the company was struggling to implement."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is its performance and integration."
"When we upgraded, we received more functions or more features."
"The main feature is that the processes are very flexible, they are able to be adapted to the business and their departments."
"SAP HANA is vertically and horizontally scalable."
"SAP HANA's most valuable features are monitoring, reporting, and price and stock control."
"Eases management of databases."
"The solution is easy to understand if you have basic knowledge of SQL commands."
"Data validation and ease of use are the most valuable features."
"The speed of getting data."
"It is a stable solution."
"The team members don't have to learn a new language and can implement complex tasks very easily using only SQL."
"Spark SQL's efficiency in managing distributed data and its simplicity in expressing complex operations make it an essential part of our data pipeline."
"Certain data sets that are very large are very difficult to process with Pandas and Python libraries. Spark SQL has helped us a lot with that."
"One of Spark SQL's most beautiful features is running parallel queries to go through enormous data."
 

Cons

"The solution is very expensive for us."
"The bid process needs to be improved."
"SAP HANA's long run time to extract data could be improved upon."
"I would like more technical documentation. I would like it to be easier to find online help or have a better launch-based service. SAP has a lot of functions, so we need more best practices and more detailed documentation on industry solutions. For example, it would be good to have documentation on why a certain process needs to be set up and which kinds of configurations need to be set up."
"The solution needs to work on its performance and make it faster."
"The solution could improve in the handling of backup data and the administration tools."
"There's an issue in the partition. When you record more than two million records, partitioning does not work well. In Oracle it's easy. SAP must resolve this issue in order to be more competitive with Oracle."
"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."
"This solution could be improved by adding monitoring and integration for the EMR."
"In terms of improvement, the only thing that could be enhanced is the stability aspect of Spark SQL."
"There should be better integration with other solutions."
"The solution needs to include graphing capabilities. Including financial charts would help improve everything overall."
"Being a new user, I am not able to find out how to partition it correctly. I probably need more information or knowledge. In other database solutions, you can easily optimize all partitions. I haven't found a quicker way to do that in Spark SQL. It would be good if you don't need a partition here, and the system automatically partitions in the best way. They can also provide more educational resources for new users."
"It takes a bit of time to get used to using this solution versus Pandas as it has a steep learning curve."
"SparkUI could have more advanced versions of the performance and the queries and all."
"It would be beneficial for aggregate functions to include a code block or toolbox that explains its calculations or supported conditional statements."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost for SAP HANA is approximately $200 per user per month."
"The price is high and could be a bit cheaper."
"SAP HANA is very expensive here in China. My company bought the SAP ERP suite, which includes SAP HANA. For others who use SAP HANA as an analytical database, CPU numbers will affect the pricing, so as a solution, it's costly."
"People who are technical will accept the cost, but financially they will assess whether this solution will bring them revenue or not. People often ask, how will I profit when the cost is so high?"
"The cost of SAP HANA is high, and I would rate the price at eight out of ten."
"SAP HANA is affordable. I rate it a seven out of ten."
"Price-wise, the product falls on the higher side of the spectrum. There is no need to pay for maintenance and support additionally. Support is available for bug fixes in the product."
"SAP HANA is an expensive product."
"The on-premise solution is quite expensive in terms of hardware, setting up the cluster, memory, hardware and resources. It depends on the use case, but in our case with a shared cluster which is quite large, it is quite expensive."
"The solution is open-sourced and free."
"We use the open-source version, so we do not have direct support from Apache."
"We don't have to pay for licenses with this solution because we are working in a small market, and we rely on open-source because the budgets of projects are very small."
"There is no license or subscription for this solution."
"The solution is bundled with Palantir Foundry at no extra charge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Spark SQL?
Spark SQL's efficiency in managing distributed data and its simplicity in expressing complex operations make it an essential part of our data pipeline.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spark SQL?
We don't have to pay for licenses with this solution because we are working in a small market, and we rely on open-source because the budgets of projects are very small.
What needs improvement with Spark SQL?
In terms of improvement, the only thing that could be enhanced is the stability aspect of Spark SQL. There could be additional features that I haven't explored but the current solution for working ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance, HANA
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Unilever, NHS 24, adidas Group, CHIO Aachen, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited
UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, Alibaba Taobao, Kenshoo, Hitachi Solutions
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HANA vs. Spark SQL and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.