Azure Synapse Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Synapse Analytics
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Azure Synapse Analytics is described as the former Azure SQL Data Warehouse, evolved, and as a limitless analytics service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. It gives users the freedom to query data using either serverless or provisioned resources, at scale. Azure Synapse brings these two worlds together with a unified experience to ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate BI and machine learning needs.
$4,700
per month 5000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Pricing
Azure Synapse Analytics
Editions & Modules
Tier 1
$4,700
per month 5,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 2
$9,200
per month 10,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 3
$21,360
per month 24,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 4
$50,400
per month 60,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 5
$117,000
per month 150,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 6
$259,200
per month 360,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Synapse Analytics
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
Additional Details—
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Synapse Analytics
Considered Both Products
Azure Synapse Analytics
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
They're all part of the Microsoft Azure family, so they are not exactly competitors. They overlap in functionality, but they're targeted at different levels of customers.
Azure Data Factory is an excellent stand-alone PaaS (included in Synapse Analytics) for writing, scheduling, …
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics stacks up well against the competitors I mentioned above. Technically, Azure SQL Datawarehouse is an upgraded version of the Azure SQL Database. So, the choice to move from one to the other depends on the processing needs of your company. If you need …
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
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 …
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
In comparing Azure Synapse to the Google BigQuery - the biggest highlight that I'd like to bring forward is Azure Synapse SQL leverages a scale-out architecture in order to distribute computational processing of data across multiple nodes whereas Google BigQuery only takes into …
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
We also looked at Oracle Data Warehouse as part of our short list of products to implement as a solution. Oracle's product turned out to have less support by way of easily accessible internet blogs. Oracle was also considerably more expensive and we would have needed to hire …
Chose Azure Synapse Analytics
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 …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Azure Synapse Analytics
Small Businesses
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Snowflake
Snowflake
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Snowflake
Snowflake
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Synapse Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(9 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Synapse Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
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.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • 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)
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Cons
Microsoft
  • 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.
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Usability
Microsoft
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.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
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
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
Basically, the billing is predictable, and this all about it.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • 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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ScreenShots