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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cloudant

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/ACloudant is an open source non-relational, distributed database service that requires zero-configuration. It's based on the Apache-backed CouchDB project and the creator of the open source BigCouch project. Cloudant's service provides integrated data management, search, and analytics engine designed for web applications. Cloudant scales your database on the CouchDB framework and provides hosting, administrative tools, analytics and commercial support for CouchDB and BigCouch. Cloudant is often…

    $1

    per month per GB of storage above the included 20 GB

    Microsoft SQL Server

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft SQL Server is a relational database.

    $1,418

    Per License

    Pricing
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $1
    per month per GB of storage above the included 20 GB
    Standard
    $75
    per month 100 reads/second ; 50 writes/second ; 5 global queries/second
    Lite
    Free
    20 reads/second ; 10 writes/second ; 5 global queries / second ; 1 GB of storage capacity
    Standard
    Included
    per month 20 GB of storage
    Subscription
    $1,418.00
    Per License
    Enterprise
    $13,748.00
    Per License
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cloudant
    MS SQl is more specific to relational data. Overall, it is more mature with a more feature-filled interface, user access management, and tools to manage data.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cloudant
    Infinitely better in every part. Except handling SQL
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cloudant
    We chose Cloudant because it was fully managed and used in the marketplace, unlike MongoDB was at the time, and it supported JSON which SQL Server 2016 didn't.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cloudant
    All other NoSQL document-centric DB must be installed on premise on in the cloud as complicated clusters. The "as a service" formula and the open source origin were the same reasons for Cloudant choice, freeing us of all system and administration tasks!
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    53 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    53 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    45 Answers
    Features
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    NoSQL Databases
    Comparison of NoSQL Databases features of IBM Cloudant and Microsoft SQL Server
    Feature
    IBM Cloudant
    9.1
    21 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Microsoft SQL Server
    -
    Ratings
    Performance9.721 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability8.321 Ratings00 Ratings
    Concurrency9.821 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security8.221 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scalability9.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data model flexibility9.821 Ratings00 Ratings
    Deployment model flexibility9.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Small Businesses
    RavenDB
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Amazon RDS
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Amazon DynamoDB
    Score7.9 out of 10
    SingleStore
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Amazon DynamoDB
    Score7.9 out of 10
    SAP IQ
    Score5.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (45 ratings)
    7.9
    (107 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    7.6
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    7.9
    (26 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.5
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.6
    (23 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM CloudantMicrosoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    Our organization found Cloudant most suitable if One, a fixed pricing structure would make the most sense, for example in a situation where the project Cloudant is being used in makes its revenue in procurement or fixed retainer — thus the predictability of costs is paramount; Two, where you need to frequently edit the data and/or share access to the query engine to non-engineers — this is where the GUI shines.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft SQL is ubiquitous, while MySQL runs under the hood all over the place. Microsoft SQL is the platform taught in colleges and certification courses and is the one most likely to be used by businesses because it is backed by Microsoft. Its interface is friendly (well, as pleasant as SQL can be) and has been used by so many for so long that resources are freely available if you encounter any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • For us, performance and scalability is the key, and Cloudant DB backed by CouchDB is scalable and performant.
    • IBM Cloudant dB is very easy to provision for sandbox, development, QA as well as production.
    • Support for Java for CouchDB app server analytics enables a greater control for over developers.
    • Schema free oriented very easy to program and build applications on it.
    • We love it!!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Easy to configure and use with Visual Studio and Dot Net
    • Easy integration with MSBI to perform data analysis
    • Data Security
    • Easy to understand and use
    • Very easy to export database and tables in the form of SQL query or a script
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • It was only after we went with the cloud-based solution that IBM rolled out an on-premise version.
    • We found that a 3rd-party ODBC driver was required for a few applications that needed to pull data out of Cloudant.
    • The sales process was difficult because the salesperson we used was not as versed on Cloudant as I had hoped.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise edition has a high cost but is the only edition which supports SQL Always On Availability Groups. It would be nice to include this feature in the Standard version.
    • Licensing of Microsoft SQL Server is a quite complex matter, it would be good to simplify licensing in the future. For example, per core vs per user CAL licensing, as well as complex licensing scenarios in the Cloud and on Edge locations.
    • It would be good to include native tools for converting Oracle, DB2, Postgresql and MySQL/MariaDB databases (schema and data) for import into Microsoft SQL Server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    the flexibility of NoSQL allow us to modify and upgrade our apps very fast and in a convenient way. Having the solution hosted by IBM is also giving us the chance to focus on features and the improvement of our apps. It's one thing less to be worried about
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We understand that the Microsoft SQL Server will continue to advance, offering the same robust and reliable platform while adding new features that enable us, as a software center, to create a superior product. That provides excellent performance while reducing the hardware requirements and the total cost of ownership of our solution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    It's mostly just a straight forward API to a data store. I knock one off for the full text search thing, but I don't need it much anyways. Also, the dashboard UI they give is pretty nice to use. It provides syntax-highlighting for writing views and queries are easy to test. I wish other DBs had a UI like this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    it is a highly available solution in the IBM cloud portfolio and hence we have never had any issues with the data base being available - we also do continuous replication to be on the safer side just in case some thing goes awry. We also perform twice a year disaster recovery tests.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Its does not have outages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    very easy to get started and is very developer friendly given that it uses couchDB analytics. It is a cloud based solution and hence there is no hardware investment in a server and staging the server to get started and the associated delays/bureaucracy involved to get started. Good documentation is also available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    Very happy by the commitment given by the team which has been really good over the last 7 years of usage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It was good
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    online resources are good enough to understand but there is nothing like testing. In our case, we discovered some not documented behavior that we take in count now. Also, the experience in NodeJs is critical. Also, take in count that most of the "good practices" with cloudant are not in online courses but in blogs and pages from independent developers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    very hands on and detailed training
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    • Test the architecture on CouchDB helped us to address initial design flaws.
    • The migration to Cloudant as such was very painless.
    • We have migrate our replication system to Cloudant Android Sync for mobile devices.
    • We have regular informal contact with the Cloudant leadership to discuss our use cases and implementation strategies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    The feature-set, including security, is very comparable. Overall, IBM's services added to the product are mature and stable, although product support and engineers could be a little better. Global availability is improving, and Disaster Recover Capabilities are great. Overall, it's very comparable to MongoDB as a DBaaS offer, available globally and with great documentation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    [Microsoft] SQL Server has a much better community and professional support and is overall just a more reliable system with Microsoft behind it. I've used MySQL in the past and SQL Server has just become more comfortable for me and is my go to RDBMS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    The service scales incredibly well. As you would expect from CloudDB and IBM combination. The only reason I wouldn't score it a 10 is the fact that document trees can get nested and nested very quickly if you are attempting to do very complex datasets. Which makes your code that much more complex to deal. Its very possible we could find a solution to this problem with better database planning to begin with, but one of the reasons we chose a service over a self-hosted solution was so we could set it up quick and forget about it. So we weren't going to dedicate a team to architecture optimization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • IBM Cloudant is very secure and we never have to worry about losing data/unauthorized access
    • It is one of the best data backup system and works well
    • Global availability means it is easy to connect to the nearest data center and this reduces load time which is great.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
    • Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
    • Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots