IBM Cognos Analytics vs. Oracle Database

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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.
$10
per month per user
Oracle Database
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Oracle Database, currently in edition 23ai, is a converged, multimodel database management system. It is designed to simplify development for AI, microservices, graph, document, spatial, and relational applications.
$0.05
per hour
Pricing
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Editions & Modules
On Demand - Standard
USD 10.00
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
USD 42.40
per month per user
On Demand - Standard
USD 10.60
per month per user
Oracle Base Database Service - Standard
$0.0538
per hour
Oracle Base Database Service - Enterprise
$0.1075
per hour
Oracle Base Database Service - High Performance
$0.2218
per hour
Standard Edition
Contact Sales
Enterprise Edition
Contact Sales
Personal Edition
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Considered Both Products
IBM Cognos Analytics

No answer on this topic

Oracle Database
Chose Oracle Database
Coming from a MSSQL server background to an Oracle shop, there is much to be said about the differences between the databases. While MS SQL Server is a robust database, the features are somewhat inferior to Oracle. One is that Oracle can be run on other OS platforms, …
Chose Oracle Database
Teradata being the biggest competitor is by far the fastest DBMS in my experience, along with speed Teradata also offers a better price for their enterprise grade solutions. A company looking at oracle should also consider scaling and maybe decide to invest on big data …
Chose Oracle Database
We generally choose Oracle 12c whenever the requirements include reliability, scalability, and interconnectivity with existing applications. Most application upgrades are re-hosted in Oracle, if on Oracle. If the application supplier prefers, or has exclusive experience with a …
Features
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.6
130 Ratings
7% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports7.5120 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.7126 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.5122 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.5
130 Ratings
7% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis6.9127 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.7129 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.492 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.1123 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.2
128 Ratings
0% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Publish to Web8.327 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.7122 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.626 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.2124 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.0
117 Ratings
13% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.6112 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.6107 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.5103 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.340 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.4
122 Ratings
14% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)7.2119 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model7.3118 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)6.7117 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.2101 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
6.4
102 Ratings
19% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access6.796 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application6.686 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.792 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.4
82 Ratings
4% below category average
Oracle Database
-
Ratings
REST API7.279 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.476 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API6.911 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings00 Ratings
Relational Databases
Comparison of Relational Databases features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
-
Ratings
Oracle Database
8.4
6 Ratings
6% above category average
ACID compliance00 Ratings8.76 Ratings
Database monitoring00 Ratings8.76 Ratings
Database locking00 Ratings8.56 Ratings
Encryption00 Ratings9.45 Ratings
Disaster recovery00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Flexible deployment00 Ratings6.36 Ratings
Multiple datatypes00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Small Businesses
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 8.7 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Score 9.5 out of 10
SAP IQ
SAP IQ
Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(146 ratings)
9.0
(190 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(30 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
7.3
(9 ratings)
7.4
(5 ratings)
Availability
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.0
(9 ratings)
7.0
(5 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(7 ratings)
9.6
(3 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.7
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
2.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Database
Likelihood to Recommend
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
Oracle
We migrated from NoSQL to an Oracle database. One of the reasons was robust backup and recovery options available in the Oracle database, which provide zero data loss. A transactional database like Oracle is a better fit for our use case than NoSQL. On a large scale, deployment was evaluated as a cheaper option than the NoSQL engine. This conclusion came even after considering Oracle license is expensive.
Read full review
Pros
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
Oracle
  • Supports most of the Operating Systems like Unix, Linux and Windows Server.
  • It works well in high load environment under intense parallel transactions setup.
  • Highly reliable DBMS, especially RAC is very much reliable.
  • Well managed and predictable release of security patches.
  • We have highly scaled it from on-prem to a cloud cluster environment for our product.
  • One of the best-performing DBMSs on Linux machines under test delivers high throughput (QPS).
Read full review
Cons
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
Oracle
  • The memory demand and management makes it impossible to run it in a container.
  • It is hard to perform local unit testing with Oracle even using the personal edition (aggressive all the available memory grab for itself).
  • Lack of built in database migrations (e.g. as Flyway).
  • The need to install the Oracle client in addition to its drivers.
  • The cost of running it, especially in the Cloud.
  • Comes with very spartan community grade client/management tools whereas the commercial offerings tend to demand a premium price.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
Oracle
There is a lot of sunk cost in a product like Oracle 12c. It is doing a great job, it would not provide us much benefit to switch to another product even if it did the same thing due to the work involved in making such a switch. It would not be cost effective.
Read full review
Usability
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
Oracle
Many of the powerful options can be auto-configured but there are still many things to take into account at the moment of installing and configuring an Oracle Database, compared with SQL Server or other databases. At the same time, that extra complexity allows for detailed configuration and guarantees performance, scalability, availability and security.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
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
Oracle
No answers on this topic
Performance
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
Oracle
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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
Oracle
1. I have very good experience with Oracle Database support team. Oracle support team has pool of talented Oracle Analyst resources in different regions. To name a few regions - EMEA, Asia, USA(EST, MST, PST), Australia. Their support staffs are very supportive, well trained, and customer focused. Whenever I open Oracle Sev1 SR(service request), I always get prompt update on my case timely. 2. Oracle has zoom call and chat session option linked to Oracle SR. Whenever you are in Oracle portal - you can chat with the Oracle Analyst who is working on your case. You can request for Oracle zoom call thru which you can share the your problem server screen in no time. This is very nice as it saves lot of time and energy in case you have to follow up with oracle support for your case. 3.Oracle has excellent knowledge base in which all the customer databases critical problems and their solutions are well documented. It is very easy to follow without consulting to support team at first.
Read full review
In-Person Training
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
Oracle
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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
Oracle
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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
Oracle
Overall the implementation went very well and after that everything came out as expected - in terms of performance and scalability. People should always install and upgrade a stable version for production with the latest patch set updates, test properly as much as possible, and should have a backup plan if anything unexpected happens
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
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
Oracle
Because of a rich user base and support for any critical issue, this is one of the best options to choose. In case the project has a TCO issue, it can compromise and choose Postgres as the best alternative. SQL server is also good and easy to code and maintain but performance is not as good as the Oracle
Read full review
Scalability
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
Oracle
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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
Oracle
  • Multiple applications can use the same database and still get high performance
  • Licensing cost is still a concern compared to the other options available in the market that are very very inexpensive
  • Almost a maintenance free database
  • Oracle Grid makes life easy in terms of monitoring and managing the databases
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.Screenshot of a sample operational dashboard of a coffee shop created using IBM Cognos Analytics.