Azure Synapse Does It All
March 17, 2022
Azure Synapse Does It All

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Azure Synapse Analytics (Azure SQL Data Warehouse)
As a consulting company, we implement data warehouse solutions for our clients. We use Azure Synapse for enterprises data warehouse implementations. Data from various internal sources like sales, finance and operations are integrated into Synapse via Azure Data Factory and Data Lake. It’s used as reporting data source for Microsoft Power BI as well.
Pros
- Data integration via poly base
- Data distribution
- Create table as select
- Resource allocation via user groups (for production ETL and report users)
Cons
- Integrating external 3rd party data sources is very easy in Snowflake and it’s missing in Azure Synapse
- Master data services and data quality services are missing in Azure Synapse. They are useful features present in on Orem Sql server
- Resource usage reports (top 10 expensive queries, most frequently run queries, etc) are a feature that can be added in Azure Synapse. It’s present in an on-prem SQL server. DMVs are there but viewing it visually as a report is more helpful.
- External table creation via polybase
- Azure Synapse workspace integration with Microsoft Power BI, data sources and Azure Data Factory
- Create table as select
- Licensing fees is replaced with Azure subscription fee. No big saving there
- More visibility into the Azure usage and cost
- It can be used a hot storage and old data can be archived to data lake. Real time data integration is possible via external tables and Microsoft Power BI
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
Do you think Azure Synapse Analytics delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Azure Synapse Analytics's feature set?
Yes
Did Azure Synapse Analytics live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Azure Synapse Analytics go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Azure Synapse Analytics again?
Yes
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