IBM DataStage vs. Snowflake

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM DataStage
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
IBM® DataStage® is a data integration tool that helps users to design, develop and run jobs that move and transform data. At its core, the DataStage tool supports extract, transform and load (ETL) and extract, load and transform (ELT) patterns. A basic version of the software is available for on-premises deployment, and the cloud-based DataStage for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data offers automated integration capabilities in a hybrid or multicloud environment.N/A
Snowflake
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
The Snowflake Cloud Data Platform is the eponymous data warehouse with, from the company in San Mateo, a cloud and SQL based DW that aims to allow users to unify, integrate, analyze, and share previously siloed data in secure, governed, and compliant ways. With it, users can securely access the Data Cloud to share live data with customers and business partners, and connect with other organizations doing business as data consumers, data providers, and data service providers.N/A
Pricing
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Features
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
9.5
Ratings
12% above category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Connect to traditional data sources10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
8.0
Ratings
2% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Simple transformations8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Complex transformations8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
6.3
Ratings
23% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Data model creation5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Metadata management5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Business rules and workflow6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Testing and debugging6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
IBM DataStage
6.0
Ratings
30% below category average
Snowflake
-
Ratings
Integration with data quality tools6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
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IBM DataStageSnowflake
Small Businesses
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Medium-sized Companies
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
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Score 8.0 out of 10
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Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 8.0 out of 10
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Score 8.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM DataStageSnowflake
Likelihood to Recommend
Excellent Cloud data mapping tool and easy creating multiple project data analytics in real-time and the report distribution are excellent via this IBM product. Easy tool to provide data visualization and the integration is effective and helpful to migrating huge amounts of data across other platforms and different websites insights gathering.
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If you need a quick query, snowflake is the way to go. It's super simple and scalable; we were struggling before with Azure, and with Snowflake, everything runs smoothly, and we have more control over our schemas and warehouses. Snowflake, in my opinion, is the next step when you want to scale your business and manage data. If your company is still small, there may be cheaper options.
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Pros
  • Very reliable in handling data extraction, data transformation and loading
  • Flexibility in connecting to different type of databases, relational or non-relational
  • Great features such as parallel processing, hash handling, etc.
  • You can also take advantage of its FTP functions, and scheduling features if you need to.
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  • Snowflake scales appropriately allowing you to manage expense for peak and off peak times for pulling and data retrieval and data centric processing jobs
  • Snowflake offers a marketplace solution that allows you to sell and subscribe to different data sources
  • Snowflake manages concurrency better in our trials than other premium competitors
  • Snowflake has little to no setup and ramp up time
  • Snowflake offers online training for various employee types
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Cons
  • You must understand and know the algorithms, since the wrong use of them generates more time in processing.
  • Metadata. You need to develop with connectors, and taking all the Metadata from the menu, all the data that you complete manually, you can't track it.
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  • Add constraints for views and not just for tables
  • Do not force customers to renew for same or higher amount to avoid loosing unused credits. Already paid credits should not expire (at least within a reasonable time frame), independent of renewal deal size.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
SnowFlake is very cost effective and we also like the fact we can stop, start and spin up additional processing engines as we need to. We also like the fact that it's easy to connect our SQL IDEs to Snowflake and write our queries in the environment that we are used to
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Usability
Because it is a flexible tool that can manage many flows and create a strong solution with a interesting use of variables. Easy to scale up as you can copy jobs arleady build and modify them. SQL queries allow to be fast in development and have the pushdown feature, but you loose a little of user friendly look. Metadata management is not strong as a visual feature, but can be determine by job codes.
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The interface is similar to other SQL query systems I've used and is fairly easy to use. My only complaint is the syntax issues. Another thing is that the error messages are not always the easiest thing to understand, especially when you incorporate temp tables. Some of that is to be expected with any new database.
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Performance
It could load thousands of records in seconds. But in the Parallel version, you need to understand how to particionate the data. If you use the algorithms erroneously, or the functionalities that it gives for the parsing of data, the performance can fall drastically, even with few records. It is necessary to have people with experience to be able to determine which algorithm to use and understand why.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
IBM offers different levels of support but in my experience being and IBM shop helps to get direct support from more knowledgeable technicians from IBM. Not sure on the cost of having this kind of support, but I know there's also general support and community blogs and websites on the Internet make it easy to troubleshoot issues whenever there's need for that.
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We have had terrific experiences with Snowflake support. They have drilled into queries and given us tremendous detail and helpful answers. In one case they even figured out how a particular product was interacting with Snowflake, via its queries, and gave us detail to go back to that product's vendor because the Snowflake support team identified a fault in its operation. We got it solved without lots of back-and-forth or finger-pointing because the Snowflake team gave such detailed information.
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Alternatives Considered
No, it wasn’t my decision to use such an ETL product. I’m just the administrator at this point. I’ve heard there are other products there that are even on cloud support. That is much easier to use, more agile, and user-friendly. That doesn’t have that barrier from user to administrator to the developer standpoint.
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Snowflake provides various features, such as integration with Python using Snowpark. The reporting feature that caters to your small reporting needs is Snowsight. The Snowflake data marketplace is where you can get multiple data for free and even some of the data which you can buy according to your needs. And the integration options with various tools like Sigma are add-ons.
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Return on Investment
  • Not directly related to ROI or cost figures. Only comment here is that IBM tools tend to be more costly than average ETL tools, but it depends on if the company is an IBM shop.
  • One positive aspect is the company has had not a need to switch ETL tool for years.
  • Upgrading to newer versions of the tool brings flexibility in the tool and up-to-date features in relation to other applications.
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  • With separate compute and storage feature, the queries get executed quickly and it improves our overall productivity.
  • Earlier we were using a different product for analytical purposes, but with Snowflake's in-built analytical feature we are now able to save money.
  • Snowflake is cost efficient, features like auto suspend for compute resources helped to control the costs.
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ScreenShots

Snowflake Screenshots

Screenshot of Snowflake Installation