Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse) vs Databricks Lakehouse Platform

Likelihood to Recommend

It is very well suited for big data analytics. Predictive modeling, optimization, and other large scale analysis benefit from using a properly defined SQL Data Warehouse. It is also suited for simple business intelligence such as building historical and active dashboards

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Verified User

Contributor in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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[Databricks Lakehouse Platform (Unified Analytics Platform)] makes the power of Spark accessible. Databricks's proactive and customer-centric service. It is a highly adaptable solution for data engineering, data science, and AI. Load times are not consistent and no ability to restrict data access to specific users or groups.

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Gilrod Maerina

Analyst

Riverbed TechnologyInternet, 1001-5000 employees

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Pros

It is very cost-effective
Development time needed was much less in comparison to other systems
Played very nicely with our ETL and OLAP reporting tools

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Samir Patel, PMP

SQL Development Team Lead

Allianz Asset ManagementInvestment Management, 1001-5000 employees

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Process raw data in One Lake (S3) env to relational tables and views
Share notebooks with our business analysts so that they can use the queries and generate value out of the data
Try out PySpark and Spark SQL queries on raw data before using them in our Spark jobs
Modern day ETL operations made easy using Databricks. Provide access mechanism for different set of customers

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Verified User

Team Lead in Engineering

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

Limited T-SQL query library
It is not suitable for OLTP environment
Doesn't support cross-database queries

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Prabhu Sundararaj

Associate - Project

CognizantInformation Technology & Services, 10,001+ employees

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Better Localized Testing
When they were primarily OSS Spark; it was easier to test/manage releases versus the newer DB Runtime. Wish there was more configuration in Runtime less pick a version.
Graphing Support went non-existent; when it was one of their compelling general engine.

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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 201-500 employees

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Usability

Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse) 8.0

Based on 1 answer

It helps us to provide data just in time to our clients. With help of massively parallel processing, it consumes less time for both loading and querying the data and it also helps us to plan a more precise budget to our business and send just-in-time alerts in case of any outrage.

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Prabhu Sundararaj

Associate - Project

CognizantInformation Technology & Services, 10,001+ employees

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Databricks Lakehouse Platform 9.0

Based on 1 answer

This has been very useful in my organization for shared notebooks, integrated data pipeline automation and data sources integrations. Integration with AWS is seamless. Non tech users can easily learn how to use Databricks. You can have your company LDAP connect to it for login based access controls to some extent

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Verified User

Team Lead in Engineering

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Support Rating

Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse) 7.6

Based on 3 answers

I like their Support team

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Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

SQL Data Warehousing is much easier to manage if you already have SQL Server experience and analysts who are familiar with its interface. We are currently piloting using NoSQL and Hadoop type databases but it is difficult to get set up properly. Additionally, we have to re-train our users to learn how to create python scripts and use spark to query the data

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Verified User

Contributor in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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I also use Microsoft Azure Machine Learning in parallel with Databricks. They use different file formats which teach me to be flexible and able to write different programs. They are equally useful to me and I would like to master both platforms for any future usage. I do prefer Databricks because it could be free if I decided to go with the Databricks Community Edition only.

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Ann Le

Freelance Translator

ZOO Digital Group plcEntertainment, 501-1000 employees

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Return on Investment

We have had an improvement in our overall processing time
Cost was much lower than most of its competitors
Our reporting needs have grown and housing the data here has been great

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Samir Patel, PMP

SQL Development Team Lead

Allianz Asset ManagementInvestment Management, 1001-5000 employees

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Rapid growth of analytics within our company.
Cost model aligns with usage allowing us to make a reasonable initial investment and scale the cost as we realize the value.
Platform is easy to learn and Databricks provides excellent support and training.
Platform does not require a large DevOPs investment

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Verified User

Strategist in Engineering

Computer Hardware Company, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse) Editions & Modules

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Additional Pricing Details

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General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Databricks Lakehouse Platform Editions & Modules

Edition

Standard	$0.07¹
Premium	$0.10¹
Enterprise	$0.13¹

Per DBU

Additional Pricing Details

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