Amazon Web Services vs. IBM Cognos Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon Web Services
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing services. With over 165 services offered, AWS services can provide users with a comprehensive suite of infrastructure and computing building blocks and tools.
$100
per month
IBM Cognos Analytics
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cognos is a full-featured business intelligence suite by IBM, designed for larger deployments. It comprises Query Studio, Reporting Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio, and Cognos Administration along with tools for Microsoft Office integration, full-text search, and dashboards.
$11.25
per month per user
Pricing
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Editions & Modules
Free Tier
$0
per month
Basic Environment
$100 - $200
per month
Intermediate Environment
$250 - $600
per month
Advanced Environment
$600-$2500
per month
On Demand - Standard
USD 11.25
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
USD 44.90
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsAWS allows a “save when you commit” option that offers lower prices when you sign up for a 1- or 3- year term that includes an AWS service or category of services.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Features
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
8.4
78 Ratings
2% above category average
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime9.072 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling8.873 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing9.369 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates7.166 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools8.473 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images8.366 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support8.072 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls8.674 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation8.325 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.6
131 Ratings
7% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings7.5121 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings7.8127 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.6123 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.5
131 Ratings
7% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings6.9128 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.8130 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.493 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.2124 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.2
129 Ratings
0% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.327 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.8123 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.4125 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.112 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.0
118 Ratings
13% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.7113 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.6108 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings6.5104 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.241 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.4
123 Ratings
14% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.1120 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.2119 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings6.7118 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings7.948 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.2102 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
6.4
103 Ratings
19% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings6.797 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings6.587 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings6.693 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.4
83 Ratings
4% below category average
REST API00 Ratings7.180 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.377 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.39 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.911 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.110 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.87 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.6 out of 10
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(90 ratings)
7.6
(148 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(10 ratings)
8.1
(30 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(21 ratings)
7.3
(9 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
7.2
(24 ratings)
1.0
(9 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(4 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
7.0
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.7
(5 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
2.7
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon Web ServicesIBM Cognos Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
This is something that is actually common across most cloud providers. A comprehensive understanding of one's use cases, constraints and future directions is key to determining if you even need a cloud solution. If you are a 2-person startup developing something with a best-scenario audience of 1k DAU in a year, you would very likely best served by a dirt-cheap dedicated Linux server somewhere (and your options to graduate to a cloud solution will still be open). If, however, you are a bigger fish, and/or you are actively considering build-vs-buy decisions for complicated, highly-loaded, six-figure requests per minute systems, global loadbalancing, extreme growth projections - then MAYBE you solve all or part of it with a cloud provider. And depending on your taste for risk, reliability, flexibility, track record - it might be AWS.
Read full review
IBM
Well suited: Financial reporting - It can handle complex, pixel perfect, muti-page reports with scheduled delivery to stakeholders (like sales report by region on quarterly periodicity) Operational dashboard across departments - It can combine multiple data sources (ERP, CRM, excels etc) with filters, and embedded AI insights Less appropriate: Live dashboards - As stated earlier as well, IBM Cognos Analytics doesn't suit well for live dashboards or event driven data. For ex: live web traffic data or IOT device data, etc Data science - Although IBM Cognos Analytics is great tool for data exploration but it should not be used as a substitute for Python or R, which has edge over advanced modelling and stats based workflows like predictive modelling or clustering
Read full review
Pros
Amazon AWS
  • During the month-end, we experience high resource utilization; however, with AWS's scalability, we can effectively tackle the peak load.
  • With AWS IAM, we don't need to set up complete infrastructure for identity and access management, as AWS provides end-to-end IAM services.
  • With AWS, development has become very easy as it's very quick to spin up and destroy the environment, which saves costs.
Read full review
IBM
  • We can make dozens of dispatchers all focusing on different types of workloads.
  • Friendly user interface, without the need for coding or complicated editing.
  • Highly functionality reporting tools.
  • We can easily create trigger when a certain threshold are met sending reports or alerts to needed parties.
Read full review
Cons
Amazon AWS
  • When there is any misconfiguration of EC2 related to SSM Connect. It doesn't clearly states that what particular configuration is missing.
  • Debugging networking related issues could be improved.
  • From the security group page, it's difficult to determine which resource a security group is associated with.
Read full review
IBM
  • IBM Cognos Analytics enables customer data segmentation, which is essential for marketing, improving and streamlining purchasing behavior and preferences. This helps companies create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
  • Our clients Through data analysis, we can identify and observe trends in the behavior of other clients, allowing us to anticipate needs and adjust strategies to avoid consequences.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
We are almost entirely satisfied with the service. In order to move off it, we'd have to build for ourselves many of the services that AWS provides and the cost would be prohibitive. Although there are cost savings and security benefits to returning to the colo facility, we could never afford to do it, and we'd hate to give up the innovation and constant cycle of new features that AWS gives us.
Read full review
IBM
For an existing solution, renewing licenses does provide a good return on investment. Additionally, while rolling out scorecards and dashboards with little adhoc capabilities, to end users, cognos is very easily scalable. It also allows to create a solution that has a mix of OLAP and relational data-sources, which is a limitation with other tools. Synchronizing with existing security setup is easy too.
Read full review
Usability
Amazon AWS
AWS offers a wide range of powerful services that cater to various business needs which is significant strength. The ability to scale resources on-demand is a major advantage making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. The sheer volume of options and configurations can be overwhelming for new users leading to a steep learning curve. While functional the AWS management console can feel cluttered and less intuitive compared to some competitors which can hinder navigation. Although some documentation lacks clarity and practical examples which can frustrate users trying to implement specific solutions.
Read full review
IBM
We have a strong user base (3500 users) that are highly utilizing this tool. Basic users are able to consume content within the applied security model. We have a set of advanced users that really push the limits of Cognos with Report and Query Studio. These users have created a lot of personal content and stored it in 'My Reports'. Users enjoy this flexibility.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
Availability is very good, with the exception of occasional spectacular outages.
Read full review
IBM
Reports can typically be viewed through any browser that can access the server, so the availability is ultimately up to what the company utilizing it is comfortable with allowing, though report development tends to be more picky about browsers and settings as mentioned above. It also has an optional iPad app and general mobile browsing support, but dashboards lack the mobile compatibility. What keeps it from getting a higher score is the desktop tools that are vital to the development process. The compatibility with only Windows when the server has a wide range of compatibility can be a real sore point for a company that outfits its employees exclusively with Mac or Linux machines. Of course, if they are planning on outsourcing the development anyways, it's a rather moot point
Read full review
Performance
Amazon AWS
AWS does not provide the raw performance that you can get by building your own custom infrastructure. However, it is often the case that the benefits of specialized, high-performance hardware do not necessarily outweigh the significant extra cost and risk. Performance as perceived by the user is very different from raw throughput.
Read full review
IBM
Overall no major complaints but it doesn't handle DMR (Dimensionally Modeled for Relational) very well. DMR modelling is a capability that IBM Cognos Framework Manager provides allowing you to specify dimensional information for relational metadata and allows for OLAP-style queries. However, the capability is not very efficient and, for example, if I'm using only 2 columns on a 20-column model, the software is not smart enough to exclude 18 columns and the query side gets progressively larger and larger until it's effectively unusable.
Read full review
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
The customer support of Amazon Web Services are quick in their responses. I appreciate its entire team, which works amazingly, and provides professional support. AWS is a great tool, indeed, to provide customers a suitable way to
immediately search for their compatible software's and also to guide them in a
good direction. Moreover, this product is a good suggestion for every type of
company because of its affordability and ease of use.
Read full review
IBM
Why is their web application not working as fast as you think it should? They never know, and it is always a a bunch of shots in the dark to find out. Trying to download software from them is like trying to find a book at the library before computers were invented.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
Onsite training provided by IBM Cognos was effective and as expected. They did not perform training with our data which was a bit difficult for our end-users.
Read full review
Online Training
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
The online courses they offer are thorough and presented in such a way that someone who isn't already familiar with the general design methodologies used in this field will be capable of making a good design. The training environments are provided as a fully self contained virtual machine with everything needed already to create the environments. We've had some persisting issues with the environments becoming unavailable, but support has been responsive when these issues arise and straightening them out for us
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
The API's were very well documented and was Janova's main point of entry into the services.
Read full review
IBM
Make sure that any custom tables that you have, are built into your metadata packages. You can still access them via SQL queries in Cognos, but it is much easier to have them as a part of the available metadata packages.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Amazon Web Services fits best for all levels of organisations like startup, mid level or enterprise. The services are easy to use and doesn't require a high level of understanding as you can learn via blogs or youtube videos. AWS is Reasonable in cost as the plan is pay as you use.
Read full review
IBM
Power BI is stronger for quick ad-hoc analysis and dashboards, but IBM Cognos Analytics is better when consistency, precision, and mass distribution matter. Tableau is best for interactive analysis, while IBM Cognos Analytics is better for standardized, repeatable enterprise reporting. Sigma shines for customizable dashboards and drill-down analysis while IBM Cognos Analytics holds an edge in data discovery and visualization.
Read full review
Scalability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
The Cognos architecture is well suited for scalability. However, the architecture must be designed with scalability in mind from day one of the implementation. We recently upgraded from 10.1 to 10.2.1 and took the opportunity to revamp our architecture. It is now poised for future growth and scalability.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • Using Amazon Web Services has allowed us to develop and deploy new SAAS solutions quicker than we did when we used traditional web hosting. This has allowed us to grow our service offerings to clients and also add more value to our existing services.
  • Having AWS deployed has also allowed our development team to focus on delivering high-quality software without worrying about whether our servers will be able to handle the demand. Since AWS allows you to adjust your server needs based on demand, we can easily assign a faster server instance to ease and improve service without the client even knowing what we did.
Read full review
IBM
  • We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very similar to real-life scenarios.
  • Options of customizing & scheduling reports as per our requirements basis.
  • Has mobile application which works seamless.
  • API integration is not upto the mark with very limited options.
  • Licensing & Maintenance can go from cheap to expensive depending on the scope.
Read full review
ScreenShots

IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of A natural language query, used in IBM Cognos Analytics to get AI-powered insights from data.Screenshot of AI-generated insights and forecasts that can be added with just a click of a button.Screenshot of A dashboard that can be generated automatically using IBM Cognos Analytics by uploading or selecting data.Screenshot of An AI-generated dashboard from a spreadsheet that was just uploaded. This offers a great starting point for the creative process.Screenshot of Where to import data to IBM Cognos Analytics from CSV files and spreadsheets. Users can connect to cloud or on-premises data sources, including SQL databases, Google BigQuery, Amazon, and Redshift.