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Excellent Utility Environment Across Multiple Data Sources
December 22, 2023

Excellent Utility Environment Across Multiple Data Sources

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Toad Data Point

I work as a data scientist, marshalling and summarizing data for model-making and analytics to be run against it. I use Toad as a development and query environment against our corporate data warehouse, which encompasses multiple data sources. The target is a Netezza data appliance and the majority of work we do utilizes standard, uncomplicated SQL against
  • Connects to multiple data sources
  • Allows code folding to encourage focus on subsections of code
  • Is standard across multiple database engines
  • Is stable and well documented across its history
  • Leaks memory in Windows 10 (at least as currently configured)
  • Occasionally hangs and requires a restart
  • Some operations are either multi-step or unintuitive
  • Does not support extensions to change functionality
  • It is the least common denominator - not particularly optimized for our environment or workflows.
  • Hangs or slowdowns add anywhere from 5% - 7% for projects utilizing large/complicated data setts. (This could be due to other IT-imposed constraints and not entirely due to TOAD.)
  • Trying to perform some operations requires reading documentation and experimenting in order to figure out the TOAD-specific approaches and commands.
  • It just works (when we understand it). Updates don't break things and things don't suddenly start behaving differently. Best of all, we don't mysteriously lose functionality.
TOAD excels at connecting to divergent data sources, but appears geared more to DBAs than to regular query users. Microsoft's offerings excel against Microsoft SQL Server, but sometimes struggle with other data sources.

However, SSMS and vs code excel at many developer productivity/workflow enhancements. vs code, in particular, has a lively extension system that allows it to be tailored for development/querying/model building/etc. That flexibility comes at a cost - the learning curve is steep for new users. The tradeoff between complexity and power may not be good for some environments/users/situations.

Do you think Toad Data Point delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Toad Data Point's feature set?

Yes

Did Toad Data Point live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Toad Data Point go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Toad Data Point again?

Yes

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Notepad++
Appropriate for general querying and some DBA work. It's the universal least-offensive solution for most environments - not best of breed, but not subject to unusual/extensive requirements. It just works.

On the other hand, some functionality (e.g. data import/export, snippets) are perfunctory and minimal and seem to be either difficult or impossible to automate. If you need to streamline those operations, you'll be forced to rely on third-party solutions that mostly work on top of (instead of with) TOAD.