Azure Databricks vs. SAP Datasphere

Suppose you have multiple data sources and you want to bring the data into one place, transform it and make it into a data model. Azure Databricks is a perfectly suited solution for this. Leverage spark JDBC or any external cloud based tool (ADG, AWS Glue) to bring the data into a cloud storage. From there, Azure Databricks can handle everything. The data can be ingested by Azure Databricks into a 3 Layer architecture based on the delta lake tables. The first layer, raw layer, has the raw as is data from source. The enrich layer, acts as the cleaning and filtering layer to clean the data at an individual table level. The gold layer, is the final layer responsible for a data model. This acts as the serving layer for BI For BI needs, if you need simple dashboards, you can leverage Azure Databricks BI to create them with a simple click! For complex dashboards, just like any sql db, you can hook it with a simple JDBC string to any external BI tool.

Incentivized

SAP Datasphere is well suited for scalable cloud based data integration scenarios which also opens up the doors for AI driven insights which are much harder to achieve with on-prem data warehouses. Considering the licensing model of SAP Datasphere being based on consumption driven capacity units cost can be a big consideration for organizations with large volumes of data that can be a pre-requisite for data mining and AI use cases. So this can be a bottleneck or not so well adopted scenario for SAP Datasphere.

Incentivized

• Unity Catalog
• Data Federation in Lakehouse Architecture
• Integration of Mosaic AI in the SQL Layer

Incentivized

• SAP Data Warehouse Cloud offers free trial for 90 days with free 128 GB of storage and 64 GB memory.
• Availability of self-service data modeling and analytics on SAP Data Warehouse Cloud enables users to access and analyze data without getting support from the IT team.
• Without zero coding while collecting, connecting, analyzing and modeling data, it saves us time and operational costs of partnering with external IT support experts.

Incentivized

• Their pipeline workflow orchestration is pretty primitive. Lacks some common features
• Workspace UI and navigation requires steep learning curve
• Personally, I am not fond of their autosave feature. Its dangerous for production level notebooks scripts

Incentivized

• SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is quite complex, therefore, some extra orientation or training might be essential, more so on cloud.
• Secondly, SAP Data installation fee, and the monthly subscription amounts is slightly demanding, and the developer should refocus on changing them.
• Nonetheless, SAP Data rectified other challenges like flexibility and customization, making us happy clients.

Incentivized

Datasphere can come with its own challenges which can feel like a mountain to get over. However, once one has an understanding of how the product works it becomes easier to use. Once the time is spent to get it setup and working correctly very little is needed to keep it running smoothly. Its a great tool it just takes time to learn.

Incentivized

Great for what we use day to day and does what we need it to do. Cost management is not fully developed across the UX and gets expensive very quickly for developing projects. Integrated very well with our Microsoft stack and can be worked on collaboratively which works well for us.

Incentivized

SAP has suggested that BW 7.5 will be sunset soon. Usability is good in SAP BW Modernization. Instead of going with other non-SAP tools, staying with SAP will be suitable for existing users. Across the board, many of them are moving to DataSphere.

Incentivized

I would greatly acknowledge the services of Sap Data [warehouse Cloud] because we were struggling before its arrival where we used to get manual data connections and this used to consume a lot of time but after its use, we now are able to connect data easily saving a lot of time and finances.

I have found Azure Databricks to be much better than Snowflake for handling bigger, diverse data types. Snowflake is much simpler and better for smaller warehousing. The real time processing is much better in Azure Databricks and we have much more language options. Snowflake is more expensive but simpler to use. Both are great for different needs.

Incentivized

Each of these listed software has its own unique strength and capacity that scales well. SAP Datasphere on its end up against them with more suitability for large establishments with complex data ecosystems with scalability support. Also, it avails a pay-as-you-go pricing for users, and it is widely up for data quality, data governance, and data discovery.

Incentivized

• Helped reduce time for collecting data
• Reduced cost in maintaining multiple data sources
• Access for multiple users and management of users/data in a single platform

Incentivized

• Enhanced our report generation process due to presence of holistic data.
• Centralized data from all our platforms. This has helped us visualize and analyze all data much more efficiently.
• It is more on the expensive side from both cost and training perspective.

Incentivized