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Nov 17, 2023

Top 7 Cloud Data Warehouse Companies in 2023

Data warehouses are increasingly necessary for organizations that gather

Data warehouses are increasingly necessary for organizations that gather information from multiple sources and need to easily analyze and report on that information for better decision making. These enterprise systems store current and historical data in a single place and can facilitate long-range Business Intelligence.

For businesses considering a data warehouse solution, a number of competing providers offer a range of features and prices. This article will compare the top seven solutions and explain the features that differentiate them, making it easier to match them to specific needs.

Table Of Contents

The top seven providers all offer feature-rich data warehousing plans at varying prices. A business's specific needs will determine which is right for them. When selecting a provider, consider the use cases and costs for each as outlined below.

With Amazon's entry into the cloud data warehouse market, Redshift is an ideal solution for those organizations that have already invested in AWS tooling and deployment. Redshift deploys with Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud, and web-based solutions.

Amazon Redshift has a pricing page where users can sign up for a trial period, request a quote, or calculate costs based on needs. Pricing starts at $0.25 an hour and can be configured using various models based on usage.

See all Redshift features at https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/features.

For more on AWS: AWS Data Portfolio Review

Google BigQuery is a reasonable choice for users looking to use standard SQL queries to analyze large data sets in the cloud. It is a serverless enterprise data warehouse that uses cloud, scale, Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Business Intelligence (BI).

Google BigQuery's pricing page contains specific information about pay-as-you-go plans and longer-term (one to three year) commitments. The provider offers multiple versions of the platform, including Enterprise Edition and Enterprise Plus Edition. The Standard Edition is a pay-as-you-go plan starting at $0.04 per slot hour and the Enterprise Edition has different plans to help a company find its cloud data warehouse.

See all BigQuery features at https://cloud.google.com/bigquery.

For more information on Google: Google Data Portfolio Review

IBM Db2 Warehouse is a strong option for organizations handling analytics workloads that can benefit from the platform's integrated in-memory database engine and Apache Spark analytics engine.

IBM offers a free trial for IBM Db2 Warehouse and provides a pricing page where users can ask for a quote and estimate the cost. For the flex one plan, the pricing is $1.23 per instance-hour, $0.99 per VPC-hour, and $850 per a service endpoint dedicated connectivity.

For more information, go to IBM's pricing page.

See all Db2 Warehouse features at https://www.ibm.com/products/db2/warehouse.

For more on IBM: IBM: Hybrid Cloud Portfolio Review

Azure Synapse Analytics, previously known as Azure SQL Data Warehouse, is well suited for organizations of any size looking for an easy on-ramp into cloud-based data warehouse technology, thanks to its integration with Microsoft SQL Server.

Azure Synapse Analytics's pricing page allows customers to request a quote or explore pricing options. For tier one, Azure offers 5,000 units for $4,700; tier two offers 10,000 units for $9,200. For other tier options, refer to the pricing page.

See more Azure Synapse Analytics features at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/synapse-analytics/whats-new.

For more on Microsoft Azure: Microsoft Azure: Cloud Portfolio Review

For existing users of the Oracle database, the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse might be the easiest choice, offering a connected onramp into the cloud including the benefits of data marts, data warehouses, data lakes, and data lakehouses.

Oracle's Autonomous Data Warehouse's main page offers pricing information as well as a cost estimator for users. The bottom price for Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse shared and dedicated infrastructures is $0.25 per unit.

See more features at https://www.oracle.com/autonomous-database/autonomous-data-warehouse/.

For more on Oracle: Oracle Data Portfolio Review

Thanks to the pre-built templates it offers, SAP's Datasphere might be a good fit for organizations looking for more of a turnkey approach to getting the full benefit of a data warehouse. SAP Datasphere allows data professionals to deliver scalable access to business data.

SAP Datasphere's pricing page lists a free tier and range of flexible pricing options based on needs. The price for capacity datasphere units is $1.06 per unit.

See more features including a product demo at https://www.sap.com/products/technology-platform/datasphere.html.

For more on SAP: SAP Data Portfolio Review

Snowflake is a great option for organizations in any industry that want a choice of different public cloud providers for data warehouse capabilities. Snowflake aims to bring development to data, help companies govern data for users, and work globally and cross-cloud.

Snowflake's pricing page links to a quote page and offers a 30-day free trial with $400 of free usage.

See more features at https://www.snowflake.com/en/.

For more information on Snowflake: Snowflake and the Enterprise Data Platform

Cloud data warehouses typically include a database or pointers to a collection of databases where the production data is collected. Many modern cloud data warehouses also include some form of integrated query engine that enables users to search and analyze the data and assist with data mining.

Other key features to look for in a cloud data warehouse setup:

For more features and benefits: Top 10 Benefits of Data Warehousing: Is It Right for You?

When looking to choose a cloud data warehouse service, there are several criteria to consider.

Existing Cloud Deployments. Each of the major public cloud providers has its data warehouse that provides integration with existing resources, which could make deployment and usage easier for cloud data warehouse users.

Ability to Migrate Data. Consider the different types of data the organization has and where it is stored. The ability to migrate data effectively into a new data warehouse is critically important.

Storage Options. While data warehouse solutions can be used to store data, having the ability to access commodity cloud storage services can provide lower-cost options.

When considering providers and solutions of data warehousing, it's important to weigh features and cost against your company's primary goals, including deployment and analytic needs and cloud services.

While each provider and solution offers a variety of features, identifying a company's own use case can help better evaluate them against a company's needs.

For more information: 15 Best Data Warehouse Software & Tools