SAP Datasphere vs. Azure SQL Database

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP Datasphere
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
SAP Datasphere, the next generation of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, is a comprehensive data service that enables data professionals to deliver seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data. It provides a unified experience for data integration, data cataloging, semantic modeling, data warehousing, data federation, and data virtualization. SAP Datasphere enables users to distribute mission-critical business data — with business context and logic preserved — across the data…N/A
Azure SQL Database
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Azure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).
$0.50
Per Hour
Pricing
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
2 vCORE
$0.5044
Per Hour
6 vCORE
$1.5131
Per Hour
10 vCORE
$2.52
Per Hour
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSAP Datasphere is available as a subscription or consumption-based model. The SAP Datasphere capacity unit (CU) offers an adaptable approach to pricing that enables any workload on any hyperscaler. The number of CUs required is determined by the unique workload, with the ability to tailor the combination of required services within SAP Datasphere utilizing a flexible tenant configuration. The services that contribute to CU consumption are the core application (compute and storage), data lake, BW bridge, data integration, and data catalog (crawling and storage).
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Features
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Database-as-a-Service
Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
SAP Datasphere
-
Ratings
Azure SQL Database
7.4
32 Ratings
14% below category average
Automatic software patching00 Ratings6.530 Ratings
Database scalability00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
Automated backups00 Ratings7.932 Ratings
Database security provisions00 Ratings8.832 Ratings
Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings6.831 Ratings
Automatic host deployment00 Ratings6.327 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Small Businesses
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.8 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Snowflake
Snowflake
Score 8.7 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Snowflake
Snowflake
Score 8.7 out of 10
IBM Cloudant
IBM Cloudant
Score 7.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(101 ratings)
8.0
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.7
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.2
(47 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(21 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.8
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP DatasphereAzure SQL Database
Likelihood to Recommend
SAP
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
Read full review
Pros
SAP
  • 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.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
  • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
  • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
Read full review
Cons
SAP
  • Need to have a good understanding of the SAP ecosystem to implement and use it.
  • From a cost perspective it can be little bit on the expensive side for enterprises.
  • The platform is still new and hence more subjected to bugs. But support for it is always good from the SAP team.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
  • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
  • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
  • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
  • Sudden disconnects.
  • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
  • Only one Latin Collation choice.
  • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
SAP
We are moving into using SAP datasphere heavily and replacing all of the SAP HANA native calc view logic to the sap datasphere graphical view which will reduce the legacy SAP BW data warehouse. Also need some more features such as debugging, sql preview and prompts enhancements so that we can generate the reports.
Read full review
Microsoft
This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
Read full review
Usability
SAP
It is one of the best tools and a boon to Logistics teams across the globe. One tends to actually process warehousing data so smoothly and the way demonstration is made while in programs it makes it user friendly. The Inventory touch points that one identify is simply awesome and is best part.
Read full review
Microsoft
The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
Read full review
Support Rating
SAP
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
SAP
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.
Read full review
Microsoft
We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
SAP
Despite the pricing model being expensive for small businesses, it provides decent features and capabilities for organizations of different sizes and it's an appropriate investment in today's business environment where there is constant pressure to build a scalable and flexible analytics service
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
SAP
Ever since we implemented SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, we have been able to reduce the additional costs of hiring third-party service providers by incorporating professional services offered by the vendor.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
SAP
  • Preserving data quality has enhanced governance on data by having a single source that is accessible to every business user via self-service capabilities.
  • Operational cost is lowered by connecting data in one integrated solution hence making it easy to access information without having to keeping logging to other applications. Additionally, no external IT support is needed since SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has no-coding modeling tools.
  • SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has enabled every business user to understand different data by transforming data to real insights.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
  • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
  • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
Read full review
ScreenShots