Teradata VantageCloud Enterprise on AWS

There are two major use cases for Teradata . One is that whatever data we cleanse and aggregate, we push it to Teradata  for our business users. We create some ETL pipelines and automate them. The second use case is for data wrangling. Whatever data we publish to Teradata is used for various analyses, various SQLs, and a lot of dashboards sit on top of Teradata.

My most recent project was for inferring the Net Promoter  Score for one of the largest Australian banks where I used Teradata for ETL and data analysis. The entire cleaned data of the bank was stored in Teradata, wherein we had eight to ten different datasets coming in from different sources that were aggregated or converged into Teradata. Using that data, we developed certain business rules on top of that aggregated dataset, which was further fed into Tableau that sat on top of Teradata. Using that data, we were able to infer the customer Net Promoter  Score for a rolling six-week average.

The first thing that I appreciate about Teradata is its multi-parallel processing. Whatever queries we execute on Teradata, they are blazingly fast, so it offers really fast connectivity. Secondly, it also provides the MultiLoad feature, by which I can upload my Excels directly to Teradata or CSVs to analyze the data. The third feature is the QUALIFY or ROW_NUMBER keywords that I really appreciate about Teradata. The fourth thing is the way Teradata stores data in a columnar format for faster query processing, which is also one of the best features.

The multi-parallel processing and fast query execution of Teradata have benefited me and my team greatly. What really happens is that we store multiple copies of the data, one in Teradata and the other in our HDFS or object storage. When we had to query the data from the object storage, it was really slow, but when we discovered that this dataset is also available in Teradata, it was really fast, especially related to the NPS  project that I was discussing. That is probably one of the use cases that I can recall.

Teradata has positively impacted my organization since its inception. Earlier, whatever data we used to house was in HDFS, then we migrated to cloud, and now we are using Teradata, but Teradata has also moved to cloud. Teradata has immensely helped our organization to fetch the data at a faster rate, which has saved us quite a lot of time. That is probably the very best thing about Teradata.

Teradata could be improved by having a web interface that can really help users to plug and play. Right now, what is required is that I have to install a desktop app for Teradata and then set up the connections. If the same thing were available in a web interface, that would be really helpful.

Since I started my career, I have been using Teradata. It has been more than seven years that I have been using Teradata.

Teradata is stable.

The scalability of Teradata is really great. Whenever we need more resources, we can add that in Teradata, and when not needed, we can scale it down as well. All in all, it is very good.

I have not used other solutions personally, but I have seen a use case of Redshift getting used earlier in my current organization. I have also seen the use of object storage prior to using Teradata fully. What I can see now is that we are moving away from object storage because we want faster results, which is why we use Teradata.

I have seen a return on investment through time saved, specifically saving fifteen to twenty percent of the time.

At least fifteen to twenty percent of our time has been saved using Teradata, which has positively affected team productivity and business outcomes.

Before choosing Teradata, I evaluated other options such as Snowflake  and Redshift. These were some of the options available.

My advice to others looking into using Teradata is to go for it if you need faster processing, multi-parallel processing, or more security. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

My main use case for Teradata  involves data analytics, data mapping, and data process improvement.

I use Teradata  for our in-in processes such as revenue reporting. We have utilized it for procurement to pay and analyzed all the data points from procure to settlements to payments, ensuring that the right data has been sent, checking the data status, and guaranteeing the cleanliness and quality of the data.

We are using Teradata for generative AI related to data mapping, data content, and data distribution.

The best features that Teradata offers include the security around the data, which has been a key issue for us. Teradata locks down the data, providing us with a quality of data we can trust when sending it to external portals and third-party tools such as Salesforce .

Teradata's security helps our organization meet compliance requirements such as GDPR and IFRS, and it is particularly essential for revenue contracting or revenue recognition. Additionally, we rely on it due to our HIPAA requirements.

The analytics features and the dashboards in Teradata have been extremely helpful for us.

Teradata has positively impacted our organization by allowing our team to reduce from 27 people down to eight, consolidating our headcount. It has resulted in better performance improvement within our team as we now cover nine business units instead of 18, thanks to the data performance, which has increased data visibility and helped the enterprise achieve a higher rate of internal return on financials.

We have observed a lesser level of churn with our customers; we have been able to maintain more customer relationships because we have access to more data and analytics, allowing us to predict customer needs anywhere from three to nine months ahead of time.

The limitation we encountered was related to speed, prompting us to increase our AWS  cloud thresholds and benchmarks on the servers, adding more throughput. We have been testing that, but speed remains one of our key issues.

The integration has been awesome because of the platforms and their usage, and usability is great. The most challenging aspect is finding Teradata resources, so we are focusing on internal training and looking for more Teradata experts. If Teradata could provide a list of certified experts, that would be fantastic.

I rated Teradata a nine because the main area for improvement is the bandwidth of resources that could assist us in applying to our projects, specifically more certified and expert resources. The market share of Teradata professionals is limited, creating an issue for us.

I have been using Teradata for 12 years.

Teradata is stable.

Teradata's scalability is great; it's been awesome.

The customer support for Teradata has been great.

I would rate the customer support a nine on a scale of 1 to 10.

Positive

I previously used Oracle Data Store, but we switched due to problems with integration, speed to market, talent, and security issues.

We have realized a return on investment, with a reduction of staff from 27 to eight, and our current return on investment is approximately 14%. Our target is a 30% internal rate of return. Overall, our performance improvement and KPIs have increased by about 22%, but we are aiming for another 17% to capture in synergy dollars.

Our experience with pricing included a staged pricing model based on units and servers, the cost per subscription, and the data usage, which involved about five different points in our pricing model. We spent roughly $295,000 on setup costs, and we have a five-year license.

Before choosing Teradata, we evaluated several options, including Snowflake , Teradata, Oracle Data Store, SAP MDM , and two other products whose names I don't remember.

My advice for others looking into using Teradata is to conduct co-pilot type projects first; I recommend executing use case projects to truly see the value and understand how much it helps.

We are just a customer and do not have any other business relationship with this vendor.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Teradata a nine.