Need for Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics was formerly called as Azure SQL Data Warehouse service. Azure Synapse is the next generation of Azure SQL Data Warehouse, blending big data analytics, data warehousing, and data integration into a single unified service that provides end-to-end analytics with limitless scale. As the coordination between data lakes and data warehouses is not smooth, the decision-making process becomes unproductive! Microsoft’s Azure Synapse Analytics intends to bring together data lakes and data warehouses for a unique experience, as well as to elevate Machine Learning and Business Intelligence capabilities.
4 Core Benefits of Azure Synapse Analytics
Synapse's integration with Azure Machine Learning and Power BI will increase enterprises' capacity to gain insights from their data and apply machine learning to all of their smart apps. As a result, users will be able to connect and analyse more data.
Real-time Analytics
Synapse Analytics will provide you with a one-of-a-kind experience. It provides an integrated workspace for tasks such as data management, warehousing, big data, and artificial intelligence. Data experts may use a code-free visual environment to manage data pipelines. Data scientists may generate proofs of concept (POCs) and business analysts can build dashboards in less time by using the same analytics solution.
Infinite Scale
With a speedier approach, Synapse extracts insights from all of your data across the big data analytics system and data warehouses. With this improved version, data experts can use a simple SQL query to combine relational and non-relational data in the data lake. With smart workload segregation, workload management, and truly limitless concurrency, you can simply streamline the performance of all queries for critical workloads.
Deeper Insights
This comprehensive analytics solution is tightly linked with Power BI and machine learning (ML). It greatly broadens the discovery of insights from all of your data and applies ML models to all of your intelligent apps. Using an unlimited analytics service, you may shorten the development time of your BI and ML applications. This service enables you to apply intelligence to all of your essential data – from Office 365 and Dynamics 365 to SaaS services that support the Open Data Initiative – and easily share that data.
Advanced Privacy and Security
Azure is the market's most secure and safe cloud platform. Synapse creates crucial features such as active data encryption and threat monitoring. Organizations can assure data privacy and security with native row-level and column-level security for granular access control. Furthermore, dynamic data masking secures important data in real time.
Key Pillars of Azure Synapse Analytics Service
There are 5 main pillars of Azure Synapse Analytics Service. Based on your requirements, Addend Analytics’ experts can recommend and configure them -
Azure Synapse Studio
This tool is a web-based SaaS application that enables developers to work from a single interface on any aspect of Synapse Analytics. In Synapse Analytics, used for an analytical solution development life cycle, generally, a workspace is created that allows users access to synapse features such as Database input using import mechanisms or pipelines and data flow creation, data exploration using notebooks, data analysis using spark jobs or SQL scripts, and finally data visualisation for reporting and dashboard use. It also provides artifacts, debug code, performance improvement through metrics evaluation and integration with CI/CD systems, etc. Pipelines can be established using Synapse Studio’s built-in templates to integrate data from many sources, as demonstrated below.
Azure Synapse Data Integration
Data can be loaded into Synapse using a variety of tools. Having an integrated orchestration engine, on the other hand, helps to reduce reliance on and administration of different tool instances and data pipelines. This service includes an integrated orchestration engine similar to Azure Data Factory for creating data pipelines and powerful data transformation features within the Synapse workspace. Support for 90+ data sources, including over 15 Azure-based data sources, 26 open-source and cross-cloud data warehouses and databases, 6 file-based data sources, and 3 No SQL-based data sources, are among the key characteristics.
Synapse SQL Pools
This feature offers the same data warehousing capabilities as previous versions of this service, when it was known as SQL DW. This service feature is provided in a provisioned way, with a defined capacity of DWU units allotted to the instance of the service for data processing. Data can be loaded into Synapse via many technologies such as SSIS, Polybase, Azure Data Factory, and so on. Synapse stores data in a columnar format and supports distributed querying, making it better suited for OLAP task performance. SQL Pools include data streaming functionality as well as a few AI functions out of the box.
Apache Spark for Azure Synapse
This Synapse component offers the Spark runtime to conduct the same set of operations as data loading, data processing, data preparation, ETLs, and other data warehousing-related tasks. Azure also offers Data Bricks, a service built on the Spark runtime with a specific set of optimizations that is often used for a similar set of uses. One of the benefits in comparison with Azure Databricks is that data processing is not required for additional or separate clusters, because this is an integral part of Synapse, Spark-based auto-scaling processing, support for feats such as .NET for Spark, SparkML algorithms, Delta Lake, Azure ML Apache Spark Integration, Jupyter style notebooks, etc. Moreover, the C#, Pyspark, Scala, Spark SQL, Java, etc. are available as multilanguage support.
Azure Synapse Security
Aside from the characteristics listed above, one important point to note is the plethora of security features included in Azure Synapse. It already complies with around 30 industry-leading compliances, including ISO, SOC, FedRAMP, DISA, HIPAA, FIPS, and others.
- It is compatible with Azure AD authentication, SQL-based authentication, and multi-factor authentication.
- It provides data encryption at rest and in transit, as well as sensitive data classification.
- It provides row-level, column-level, and object-level protection, as well as dynamic data masking.
- It provides network-level security through virtual networks and firewalls.
Developer’s Dream, Easy Maintenance
According to Addend Analytics’ experience, Azure Synapse Analytics also enables developers in extracting relevant insights from all their data in a single step! They no longer need to replicate TBs of data from disparate enterprise storage systems, which was previously a stumbling block for enterprise data warehouses and data lakes. With the help of Azure Synapse Analytics, businesses can choose their own data analytics engine. Furthermore, employees can use Azure Synapse Analytics without any special technological knowledge. As a result, even with limited skill, business professionals can locate and collect data from a variety of sources. It also considerably reduces the time it takes to deliver useful business insights from a few days to weeks or even months.
Azure Synapse Analytics FAQs
What is Addend Analytics’ expertise?
Addend Analytics is a Microsoft Gold Partner based in Mumbai, India, and a branch office in the U.S. We have successfully implemented 100+ Microsoft Power BI, Data Warehousing and Business Central projects across U.S. and Europe.
Do you work with Customers in the US?
We have provided Azure Synapse Analytics Services for multiple customers across the US, Canada, UK, and Western Europe.
What are your charges and are you expensive to work with?
We provide a milestone-based, low-risk, fixed-fee solution. So, if we don’t deliver as per the agreed project milestones, we don’t get paid. Let’s get it straight! It’s NOT our model to provide a $30k project budget – that eventually gets delayed by months; has bugs during production use, is costly to add new features, has architecture scalability challenges later, and whose ongoing support is even expensive than the original implementation. This is the exact reason why we encourage you to do a free POC with us!
Can you also provide ongoing support after the implementation phase?
We provide Managed Services Agreement (MSA) contract to our clients where they can leverage our resources for further continuing months for any small upgrades, customization, etc.
There is a very small overlap between timing. How would you cover up on that?
Timings are not an issue because of 2 reasons – our methodology and client coordination mechanism. As far as methodology is concerned, we already described to you our agile methodology where we cut projects into portions and update them on weekly basis. In the client mechanism, we have one project and account manager who will always be your one touchpoint and you can express your grievances or issues to him directly by call or email. And above all that, even our members work on flexible timing modes to suit clients’ geographical preferences, so there is nothing to worry.
How do we know you will assign the right skilled people to the task?
This is our strongest point, and we boast about it. While sharing the proposal, we will submit you the list of folks planned for the project and we encourage all our clients to explore our members’ Linkedin profiles! Please feel free to explore their blogs too! They all are Microsoft certified and some of them are even on their way to becoming MVP!
What happens if we need urgent support in the middle of your night?
Rarely do such occasions arise! But if they do, then please contact us on our direct phone. This phone is logged only for the urgent Grievance redressal mechanism for our clients. This means your inquiry and issue will be attended to within an hour.
We don’t know you; how can we trust you will deliver on time and with the right quality?
We, therefore, recommend doing a free POC so you get a taste of our working style. Secondly, please take a look at our customer base, testimonials, and references. I can even call them on a call with you if you need. You can have a background check and that will speak all.
How do I contact you?
Please email your requirements at kamal.sharma@addendanalytics.com and we will get back to you.