What users are saying about
4 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.4 out of 100
Based on 4 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
153 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.5 out of 100
Based on 153 reviews and ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Db2 Big SQL
My recommendation obviously would depend on the application. But I think given the right requirements, IBM DB2 Big SQL is definitely a contender for a database platform. Especially when disparate data and multiple data stores are involved. I like the fact I can use the product to federate my data and make it look like it's all in one place. The engine is high performance and if you desire to use Hadoop, this could be your platform.
Vice President, Chief Architect, Development Manager and Software Engineer
WySTAR Global Retirement Solutions, a Wells Fargo CompanyFinancial Services, 10,001+ employees
Amazon Redshift
If the number of connections is expected to be low, but the amounts of data are large or projected to grow it is a good solutions especially if there is previous exposure to PostgreSQL. Speaking of Postgres, Redshift is based on several versions old releases of PostgreSQL so the developers would not be able to take advantage of some of the newer SQL language features. The queries need some fine-tuning still, indexing is not provided, but playing with sorting keys becomes necessary. Lastly, there is no notion of the Primary Key in Redshift so the business must be prepared to explain why duplication occurred (must be vigilant for)
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant
SermoResearch, 201-500 employees
Pros
Db2 Big SQL
- data storage
- data manipulation
- data definitions
- data reliability
Database Administrator
RewardsLive.comInternet, 51-200 employees
Amazon Redshift
- Redshift is fully managed. Small teams do not have the resources to maintain a cluster. CloudWatch metrics are provided out-of-the-box, and it is easy to configure alarms.
- Redshift's console allows you to easily inspect and manage queries, and manage the performance of the cluster.
- Redshift is ubiquitous; many products (e.g., ETL services) integrate with it out-of-the-box.
- Writing .csvs to S3 and querying them through Redshift Spectrum is convenient.
Data Scientist
Wonder (AskWonder.com)Research, 11-50 employees
Cons
Db2 Big SQL
- Cloud readiness.
- Ease of implementation.
Vice President, Chief Architect, Development Manager and Software Engineer
WySTAR Global Retirement Solutions, a Wells Fargo CompanyFinancial Services, 10,001+ employees
Amazon Redshift
- It could benefit from adding data integrity and programming tools common to other database management systems.
- Amazon Redshift is based on PostgreSQL 8.0.2. That version of PostgreSQL was released in December 2006. While PostgreSQL was much improved since then, the new features were not implemented in Redshift. Many basic features are missing from it.
- Primary keys can be declared but not enforced. Referential integrity (foreign keys) can be declared but not enforced. UNIQUE and CHECK constraints are not supported and cannot be declared.
- IDENTITY can be declared on a column, and Redshift will put unique values into it. However: IDENTITY values in the newly inserted rows won’t be incremental or sequential. To implement a sequential number, you need to write your own custom code.
- There are no stored procedures in Redshift. We are writing SQL script files, and then parsing and running them one statement at a time from a Python program. This also enabled us to implement execution-time error logging.
- In SQL scripts, to check for the row count of affected rows, a complicated join query against some system tables or views has to be executed.
- Data Control Language (DCL) does not exist. No statements like IF, WHILE, DO, RAISERROR, etc.
- On performance of views… Views do not “pass-through” a query parameter which is a potential problem for performance.
- When selecting against a view with the WHERE clause outside of the view, the inner query of the view will be executed first without consideration for the WHERE clause, and only then the WHERE clause will be applied.
- Certain clauses of SQL work many times faster than other clauses. So be careful and test your statements for performance earlier rather than later, especially if working with a large data set.
- There was a situation when DELETE FROM JOIN was unacceptably slow. Replacing JOIN with the USING clause made DELETE instantaneous.
Principal Data Architect
IntuitComputer Software, 5001-10,000 employees
Usability
Db2 Big SQL
Db2 Big SQL 8.0
Based on 1 answer
IBM DB2 is a solid service but hasn't seen much innovation over the past decade. It gets the job done and supports our IT operations across digital so it is fair.
Database Administrator
RewardsLive.comInternet, 51-200 employees
Amazon Redshift
Amazon Redshift 8.5
Based on 8 answers
Just very happy with the product, it fits our needs perfectly. Amazon pioneered the cloud and we have had a positive experience using RedShift. Really cool to be able to see your data housed and to be able to query and perform administrative tasks with ease.
Senior Developer
American Board of Internal MedicineNon-Profit Organization Management, 201-500 employees
Support Rating
Db2 Big SQL
Db2 Big SQL 8.7
Based on 2 answers
IBM did a good job of supporting us during our evaluation and proof of concept. They were able to provide all necessary guidance, answer questions, help us architect it, etc. We were pleased with the support provided by the vendor. I will caveat and say this support was all before the sale, however, we have a ton of IBM products and they provide the same high level of support for all of them. I didn't see this being any different. I give IBM support two thumbs up!
Vice President, Chief Architect, Development Manager and Software Engineer
WySTAR Global Retirement Solutions, a Wells Fargo CompanyFinancial Services, 10,001+ employees
Amazon Redshift
Amazon Redshift 7.5
Based on 11 answers
The support was great and helped us in a timely fashion. We did use a lot of online forums as well, but the official documentation was an ongoing one, and it did take more time for us to look through it. We would have probably chosen a competitor product had it not been for the great support

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Financial Services Company, 5001-10,000 employeesAlternatives Considered
Db2 Big SQL
MS SQL Server was ruled out given we didn't feel we could collapse environments. We thought of MS-SQL as more of a one for one replacement for Sybase ASE, i.e., server for server. SAP HANA was evaluated and given a big thumbs up but was rejected because the SQL would have to be rewritten at the time (now they have an accelerator so you don't have to). Also, there was a very low adoption rate within the enterprise. IBM DB2 Big SQL was not selected even though technically it achieved high scores, because we could not find readily available talent and low adoption rate within the enterprise (basically no adoption at the time). We ended up selecting Exadata because of the high adoption rate within the enterprise even though technically HANA and Big SQL were superior in our evaluations.
Vice President, Chief Architect, Development Manager and Software Engineer
WySTAR Global Retirement Solutions, a Wells Fargo CompanyFinancial Services, 10,001+ employees
Amazon Redshift
Than Vertica: Redshift is cheaper and AWS integrated (which was a plus because the whole company was on AWS).
Than BigQuery: Redshift has a standard SQL interface, though recently I heard good things about BigQuery and would try it out again.
Than Hive: Hive is great if you are in the PB+ range, but latencies tend to be much slower than Redshift and it is not suited for ad-hoc applications.
Than BigQuery: Redshift has a standard SQL interface, though recently I heard good things about BigQuery and would try it out again.
Than Hive: Hive is great if you are in the PB+ range, but latencies tend to be much slower than Redshift and it is not suited for ad-hoc applications.

Verified User
Director in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employeesReturn on Investment
Db2 Big SQL
- better data visibility
- solid reliability for mission critical data
Database Administrator
RewardsLive.comInternet, 51-200 employees
Amazon Redshift
- Redshift has had a very positive impact on our business. It has been used to provide analytics on marketing campaigns to boost revenue.
- Redshift is instrumental in our payment collection business processes. It powers everything from who gets called to who gets sent collection emails.
Software Engineer
Stansberry ResearchPublishing, 51-200 employees
Pricing Details
Db2 Big SQL
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Db2 Big SQL Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
—Amazon Redshift
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Amazon Redshift Editions & Modules
Edition
Current Generation | $0.25 - $13.041 |
---|---|
Previous Generation | $0.25 - $4.081 |
Redshift Spectrum | $5.002 |
Redshift Managed Storage | $0.243 |
- per hour
- per terabyte of data scanned
- per GB per month