What is Azure Synapse Analytics?

A data warehouse is a central repository of data that is integrated from one or many resources in order to store current and/or historical data. Data warehouses are a key component in business intelligence. In most cases, large amounts of "cleaned" data are stored in a data warehouse for the purpose of generating clear and concise reports and dashboards.

Over time, the quantity of collected data can overwhelm the traditional on-premises data warehouse infrastructure and upkeep can be costly and time-consuming. Therefore, a cloud-based solution is the best option for growth and agility in data management. However, not all cloud providers and solutions are the same, especially when it comes to cost and performance.

Many cloud solutions offered in the current market will combine the cost of computing resources with the cost of storing the data, along with additional services or fees, things can really start to add up before you know it! Azure Synapse Analytics, also known as Azure SQL Data Warehouse is especially great for small and medium-sized businesses because it takes the mystery out of data storage and lets you pay for the space you need.

Azure Synapse Analytics is an platform as a service (PAAS) that combines data integration, warehousing, and analytics into one solution. It allows you to query data based on your own conditions, using serverless or dedicated resources, and at scale. A reliable service like Azure Synapse means you could finally have a clear picture of where your business is and where it's going.

Here are some examples how to use Azure Synapse:

• Retail - Provide personalized recommendations to every customer by processing and analyzing data from unique sources like your CRM, website, etc. Essential data will then generate critical insights and processes for a better customer experience.
• Manufacturing - Use different data sources throughout the supply chain to gain a comprehensive view of your business operations. By adding advanced analytics and machine learning, you gain a competitive advantage.
• Financial Services - Build a service with a consolidated approach toward collecting and analyzing data to help you manage financial risk and mitigate threats.
  
  

Cost

Azure Synapse Analytics has a very robust and detailed pricing module based on the required architecture. For small businesses, I prefer to focus on the key advantage which is price and scalability for serverless data exploration and data warehousing. Azure starts you out with 10TB of free queries per month until December 31st, 2021. For every additional TB, it is $5 per month. This allows you use T-SQL to query data from your data lake in Azure, rather than provision resources ahead of time. The best part though, is that you only pay for executed queries and the pricing is based on the amount of data processed by each query.

Where to start?

Getting started with Azure Synapse Analytics is easy and it can be done very quickly! First thing's first, you can contact us if you don't have an existing Azure account. We will be happy to set you up with one and then give you $250.00 credit along with a FREE cloud assessment. You can't beat that! After setting your account up, you will be ready to succeed with Azure Synapse.

Here are some tutorials to help you start your journey.

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