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Databricks Data Intelligence Platform vs. Microsoft SQL Server

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Databricks Data Intelligence Platform

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ADatabricks offers the Databricks Lakehouse Platform (formerly the Unified Analytics Platform), a data science platform and Apache Spark cluster manager. The Databricks Unified Data Service provides a platform for data pipelines, data lakes, and data platforms.

    $0.07

    Per DBU

    Microsoft SQL Server

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

    $1,418

    Per License

    Pricing
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $0.07
    Per DBU
    Premium
    $0.10
    Per DBU
    Enterprise
    $0.13
    Per DBU
    Subscription
    $1,418.00
    Per License
    Enterprise
    $13,748.00
    Per License
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Considered Both Products
    Databricks
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    53 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    53 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    45 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon RDS
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SAP Business Data Cloud
    Score8.6 out of 10
    SingleStore
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP Business Data Cloud
    Score8.6 out of 10
    SAP IQ
    Score5.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (21 ratings)
    7.9
    (107 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    9.7
    (7 ratings)
    7.6
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (2 ratings)
    7.9
    (26 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 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
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Databricks Data Intelligence PlatformMicrosoft SQL Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Databricks
    Medium to Large data throughput shops will benefit the most from Databricks Spark processing. Smaller use cases may find the barrier to entry a bit too high for casual use cases. Some of the overhead to kicking off a Spark compute job can actually lead to your workloads taking longer, but past a certain point the performance returns cannot be beat.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Pros
    Databricks
    • Process raw data in One Lake (S3) env to relational tables and views
    • Share notebooks with our business analysts so that they can use the queries and generate value out of the data
    • Try out PySpark and Spark SQL queries on raw data before using them in our Spark jobs
    • Modern day ETL operations made easy using Databricks. Provide access mechanism for different set of customers
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Cons
    Databricks
    • Sometimes, when multiple jobs depend on each other in different environments, it is not always easy to see the full workflow in one place.
    • It is sometimes difficult to determine which job or cluster contributes more to the overall cost.
    • For beginners, cluster configuration may be a little difficult. So more recommendation in the platform can help.
    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
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Databricks
    Because it is an amazing platform for designing experiments and delivering a deep dive analysis that requires execution of highly complex queries, as well as it allows to share the information and insights across the company with their shared workspaces, while keeping it secured.

    in terms of graph generation and interaction it could improve their UI and UX
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Reliability and Availability
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Its does not have outages.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Databricks
    One of the best customer and technology support that I have ever experienced in my career. You pay for what you get and you get the Rolls Royce. It reminds me of the customer support of SAS in the 2000s when the tools were reaching some limits and their engineer wanted to know more about what we were doing, long before "data science" was even a name. Databricks truly embraces the partnership with their customer and help them on any given challenge.
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    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
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    In-Person Training
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It was good
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    very hands on and detailed training
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Alternatives Considered
    Databricks
    The most important differentiating factor for Databricks Lakehouse Platform from these other platforms is support for ACID transactions and the time travel feature. Also, native integration with managed MLflow is a plus. EMR, Cloudera, and Hortonworks are not as optimized when it comes to Spark Job Execution. Other platforms need to be self-managed, which is another huge hassle.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Scalability
    Databricks
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Databricks
    • The ability to spin up a BIG Data platform with little infrastructure overhead allows us to focus on business value not admin
    • DB has the ability to terminate/time out instances which helps manage cost.
    • The ability to quickly access typical hard to build data scenarios easily is a strength.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    ScreenShots