Actian’s Benchmark Dominance: A Price-Performance Powerhouse

Actian Shines in TPC-H Benchmark, Outperforming Major Competitors

In August of this year, Actian conducted a TPC-H benchmark test utilizing the services of McKnight Consulting Group. While some companies perform and publish their own benchmarks, Actian prefers to utilize the services of a third party for true, reliable and unbiased testing. Based in Plano, Texas, the McKnight Consulting Group has helped over 100 companies with analytics, big data, master data management strategies and implementations, including benchmarking.

Actian conducted a similar TPC-H benchmark test last year, validating that it indeed was faster than some of its key competitors such as Google BigQuery and Snowflake, with a performance of 11 times and three times faster than each vendor, respectively. Since then, the Actian engineering team has continued to enhance the performance capabilities of the Actian Data Platform with the understanding that it needs to meet the requirements of its existing and prospective customer base.

This is especially important given the growth in business use cases and the sources of data used in day-to-day operations. Actian is always striving to keep ahead of the curve for its customers, and its ability to provide both rapid data processing capabilities and, in turn, unparalleled price-performance, have been key factors in its product roadmap.

In this recent TPC-H benchmark test, Actian decisively outperformed its competitors Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery.

Key Benchmark Findings

• Raw Performance: Actian Data Platform’s execution speed was significantly faster than all three competitors tested in the benchmark. It achieved nearly eight times the performance of Databricks, over six times that of Snowflake, and an impressive 12 times the performance of BigQuery.
• Concurrency: Even with five concurrent users, Actian Data Platform maintained its performance advantage, outperforming Databricks by three times, Snowflake by over seven times, and BigQuery by 9.6 times.
• Price-Performance: Actian Data Platform’s combination of speed and affordability was unmatched. It offered a price-performance ratio that was over eight times better than both Snowflake and BigQuery.

This is a significant improvement over last year’s fantastic results and is a testament to Actian’s commitment to database performance and price performance. Actian, with over 50 years of experience in data and database models, continues to show its prowess in the market.

What Does This Mean for Actian’s Current and Future Customers?

For businesses seeking a high-performance, cost-effective data warehouse or analytics platform, the benchmark results are a compelling reason to consider the Actian Data Platform. Here’s why:

• Faster Insights: Actian’s superior performance means that businesses can get answers to their most critical questions faster. Actian has always aimed to provide REAL real-time analytics, and these results prove that we can get customers there. This can lead to improved decision-making, increased operational efficiency, and better customer experiences.
• Lower Costs: Actian Data Platform’s favorable price-performance ratio translates into significant cost savings for businesses. By choosing Actian, organizations can avoid the high and sometimes unpredictable costs associated with other data platforms while still achieving exceptional results. This leads to long-term total cost of ownership benefits that other vendors cannot provide.
• Scalability: Actian Data Platform’s ability to handle concurrent users and large datasets demonstrates its scalability. This is essential for businesses that need to support growing data volumes and user demands – two business needs that every organization is facing today.

Price Performance is Top of Mind

Today, CFOs and technical users alike are trying to find ways to get the best price performance possible from their database management systems (DBMS). Not only are CFOs interested in up-front acquisition and implementation costs, but also all costs downstream that are associated with utilization and maintenance of whichever system they choose.

Technical users of DBMS offerings are also looking for alternative ways to utilize their systems to save costs. In the back alleys of the internet (places like Reddit and other forums) users of various DBMS platforms are talking with others about how to effectively “game” their DBMS platforms to get the best price performance possible, sometimes leading to the development of shadow database solutions to try to save costs.

With the latest TPC-H benchmark results showing that the Actian Data Platform performs over eight times better than both Snowflake and BigQuery, companies looking for outstanding price performance in their future and, indeed, current DBMS systems need to consider Actian.

Take the Next Step

Actian Data Platform’s dominance in the TPC-H benchmark is a clear indication of its exceptional capabilities. By delivering superior performance, affordability, and scalability, Actian offers a compelling solution for businesses seeking a powerful and cost-effective data platform. If organizations are looking to unlock the full potential of their data with confidence, Actian is worth a closer look.

To download the complete TPC-H report from McKnight, click here.

About Phil Ostroff

Phil Ostroff is the Director of Competitive Intelligence at Actian, working within the marketing team. He has over 30 years of experience in various roles in diverse industries including automotive, aviation, healthcare, non-profit, IT security, retail, hospitality and media. Phil is laser-focused on determining how Actian can help companies meet their data goals in a market that sometimes overlooks their needs. His insights help Actian gain a better understanding of customer pain points and guide Actian’s product roadmap and messaging.