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Showing posts from February, 2017

SQL Server vs Azure Data Warehouse vs Netezza vs Redshift

The Great Database Shoot Out In Jan'17, I teamed up with Marc van der Zon (Data Scientist), to test and compare several database technologies for our organization's future analytics and BI platform. The technologies that made the shortlist were: SQL Server, because it is the organization's existing BI platform. Azure Data Warehouse, because of its high similarity to SQL Server. Amazon's Redshift, because of its attractive cost, scalability and performance. Netezza, because it is an affordable  on-prem appliance that performs well. Considerations We were primarily looking for the best bang-for-buck option, so price and performance were viewed as more important than how feature complete any particular option was. That said, what we regarded as important included: A shallow learning curve for BI developers (i.e. no need for expert skills in order to get good performance) Ability to re-use existing code  (i.e. ANSI-92 SQL compatibility) Time-to-solution