Likelihood to Recommend It's well suited for large, fastly growing, and frequently changing data warehouses (e.g., in startups). It's also suited for companies that want a single, relatively easy-to-use, centralized cloud service for all their data needs. Larger, more structured organizations could still benefit from this service by using Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools, knowing that costs will be much higher than other solutions. I think this product is not suited for smaller, simpler workloads (where an
Azure SQL Database and a Data Factory could be enough) or very large scenarios, where it may be better to build custom infrastructure.
Read full review Your upcoming app can be built faster on a fully managed SQL database and can be moved into Azure with a few to no application code changes. Flexible and responsive server less computing and Hyperscale storage can cope with your changing requirements and one of the main benefits is the reduction in costs, which is noticeable.
Read full review Pros Create data pipelines to connect with multiple data workspace(s) and external data Ability to connect with Azure Data Lake (sequentially) for data warehousing Being able to manage connections and create integration runtimes (for onPrem data capture) Read full review Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble. On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview. Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud. Read full review Cons It takes some time to setup a proper SQL Datawarehouse architecture. Without proper SSIS/automation scripts, this can be a very daunting task. It takes a lot of foresight when designing a Data Warehouse. If not properly designed, it can be very troublesome to use and/or modify later on. It takes a lot of effort to maintain. Businesses are continually changing. With that, a full time staff member or more will be required to maintain the SQL Data Warehouse. Read full review One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available. The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason). No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently. The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem. Sudden disconnects. The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur. Only one Latin Collation choice. There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view). Read full review Likelihood to Renew This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
Read full review Usability The data warehouse portion is very much like old style on-prem SQL server, so most SQL skills one has mastered carry over easily. Azure Data Factory has an easy drag and drop system which allows quick building of pipelines with minimal coding. The Spark portion is the only really complex portion, but if there's an in-house python expert, then the Spark portion is also quiet useable.
Read full review Support Rating Microsoft does its best to support Synapse. More and more articles are being added to the documentation, providing more useful information on best utilizing its features. The examples provided work well for basic knowledge, but more complex examples should be added to further assist in discovering the vast abilities that the system has.
Read full review We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
Read full review Alternatives Considered When client is already having or using Azure then it’s wise to go with Synapse rather than using
Snowflake . We got a lot of help from Microsoft consultants and Microsoft partners while implementing our EDW via Synapse and support is easily available via Microsoft resources and blogs. I don’t see that with
Snowflake Read full review We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord.
Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model Basically, the billing is predictable, and this all about it.
Read full review 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 Read full review Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective. As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life. Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do. Read full review ScreenShots