Linux Platform System Administrator at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Useful for large data, scalable, and high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspect of this Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is its consolidation of technical support from Microsoft, and its ability to securely host large quantities of data within the cloud environment. The overall ability to manage and maintain Big Data within the cloud provides a heightened level of efficiency, reliability, and support from Microsoft. This results in a superior user experience and an increased level of value for the end user."
  • "There may be some challenges in terms of connecting with Virtual Networks (VNETs) to Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of this Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is its consolidation of technical support from Microsoft, and its ability to securely host large quantities of data within the cloud environment. The overall ability to manage and maintain Big Data within the cloud provides a heightened level of efficiency, reliability, and support from Microsoft. This results in a superior user experience and an increased level of value for the end user.

What needs improvement?

There may be some challenges in terms of connecting with Virtual Networks (VNETs) to Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is great. It offers a high level of performance.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is good.

How are customer service and support?

The support from Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is excellent.

How was the initial setup?

There is a steep learning curve to do the implementation.

I rate the initial setup of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics a seven out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

The entire Microsoft Azure ecosystem is well connected and Microsoft has done well with the features.

My advice to others is to try out the solution, do your homework and research, and set up a POC environment.

I rate Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Founder and Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Consultant
Plenty of features, integrates well, and straightforward implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the capabilities, and the integration with other Azure resources, such as Data Factory, Databricks, and Spark for data processing. The overall ability to compose the solution with other Azure resources is valuable."
  • "Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve in usability. I have found the same issue with all Microsoft solutions."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for a combination of a data warehouse with some advanced capabilities, to allow us to run some machine learning models on top of it. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the capabilities, and the integration with other Azure resources, such as Data Factory, Databricks, and Spark for data processing. The overall ability to compose the solution with other Azure resources is valuable.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve in usability. I have found the same issue with all Microsoft solutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for approximately 10 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very good.

We have approximately 40 people using the solution. We have plans to increase our usage in the future.

How are customer service and support?

I rate the support from Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics a three out of five.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not use another solution prior to using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is straightforward. The full process took a couple of weeks when we started and finished.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics in-house.

We have a cloud services team with approximately three or four people and they take care of everything we need to support Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.

What was our ROI?

It's difficult to compute a return on investment in data analytics.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics can vary. Other solutions are typically fixed prices and a fixed cost regardless of usage, but this solution is based on usage or consumption.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The best comparison for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics would be with or against Snowflake. The only difference is that Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is more modular. If you want to build something very complex, you can. However, if you want to do something simple, you could stick with easy-to-use, more integrated platforms, such as Snowflake.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is they should leverage other Azure components if they can. If they are looking for an integrated solution that's easy to use, they should look at competitors.

I rate Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
STI Data Leader at grupo gtd
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Smoothly integrates data from diverse sources, but can be prone to bugs
Pros and Cons
  • "We use Azure Synapse Analytics in many different areas and industries, so I like that you can administrate and create pipelines for difference sources of data and later integrate and deploy it to other internal areas, such as separate dashboards for financials, and so on."
  • "Unfortunately, we have had some issues with the dashboard reporting. Sometimes, the data for specific periods would just appear blank on the dashboard. To investigate this, we worked with a Microsoft incident agent and it turned out to be a result of bugs in the platform when dealing with specific types of queries in Azure Data Factory."

What is our primary use case?

I work with Azure Synapse Analytics, Power BI, and Premier as a data administrator, using Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure. Azure Synapse Analytics is the principal data administration tool for our internal data warehousing, but we also use it for our customers' data warehousing and analytics in different industries. For data entry, we use Microsoft Power BI.

Internally, we have about 200 personnel currently using Azure Synapse Analytics, including data specialists, service managers, and other tech workers. It is not extensively used by all, however, because we don't often use it for very large amounts of data, except where financial data is involved.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure Synapse Analytics helps us move quickly when it comes to finding data warehousing and analytics solutions for our customers.

What is most valuable?

We use Azure Synapse Analytics in many different areas and industries, so I like that you can administrate and create pipelines for different sources of data and later integrate and deploy it to other internal areas, such as separate dashboards for financials, and so on.

It is our main data warehouse solution, and the one big feature I appreciate is all its various analytics functions. The built-in analytics also makes it an attractive option for our customers, where we act as a service provider for them.

What needs improvement?

Unfortunately, we have had some issues with the dashboard reporting. Sometimes, the data for specific periods would just appear blank on the dashboard. To investigate this, we worked with a Microsoft incident agent and it turned out to be a result of bugs in the platform when dealing with specific types of queries in Azure Data Factory.

We have also encountered some bugs regarding incompatibility with certain versions of Power BI. In the past, Power BI used to integrate nicely with Azure Analysis Services which we used as a bridge between Power BI and Synapse Analytics, but they have since discontinued the features that worked so well for us.

Apart from fixing bugs, I would also suggest:

  • The learning features and documentation could be improved and expanded on.
  • The calculation and forecasting tools could be made more clear and easy to use.
  • The price could be lower.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for one and a half years now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When it comes to stability, Synapse Analytics has suited us well, because it's very fast, i.e. it has good performance. Compared with the on-premises SQL solutions we've used, the results are two times as fast.

There are some bugs that we've encountered with the platform but we are able to work with Microsoft directly to resolve them as they come up.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm very impressed by the scalability of Synapse Analytics, even though we don't use it for huge amounts of data most of the time. Combined with the availability of machine learning and other features in the cloud, it has a lot of potential, especially in the area of finance.

How are customer service and technical support?

In our context as service provider, normally we have direct contact with the server. But in some cases, we have needed extra support which was very slow.

For technical issues, I often solve them myself using Microsoft's learning resources and support forum.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

For me, it's the fifth data warehouse I've used. Other specialists here also use other warehousing solutions based on SQL but for the moment Synapse Analytics is the best overall solution for us primarily because of its ease of implementation and flexibility.

How was the initial setup?

Because I was not familiar with the solution beforehand, the initial setup was quite complex. I had to learn a lot in the beginning stages. I'm grateful that there is help to be found in the Microsoft forums, however, and there are also options to study for certifications that help you learn how to use the platform properly.

What about the implementation team?

It took approximately six months to implement Azure Synapse Analytics in our organization. We set up the data warehouse features for internal use across 200 users, including data specialists, service managers, and tech workers who manage our own data and also our customers' data.

For the main deployment, we used a third-party support provider in Chile who helped us greatly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We normally pay between $300 and $500 per month, which is quite expensive for how much we actually use it, performance- and usage-wise. They have a cheap version and an expensive version, and our usage usually falls in the middle ground, which makes it not as cost-effective as it could be.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated on-premises SQL solutions for data warehousing, but our main motivation for using Synapse Analytics instead is that it lets us come up with and manage customer solutions very quickly. Some specialists are still using other SQL solutions as well, however.

What other advice do I have?

There is always room for improvement with Azure Synapse Analytics, but for our use cases it works very well. 

I would rate Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user

Correction: We normally pay between $2000 and $2500 per month

Fabio Xavier - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Systems of the TCESP at a government with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Simple analytics, good interface, and multiple database comparability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics are the user experience because it is easy to make analyses, load different databases, and different resources. Our end users can do the analysis by themselves without IT supervising. This is a great aspect of the solution, it's better for our environment."
  • "Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics can improve by increasing the size of the files that we can load on the platform. We have some files that are too large to be loaded and it would be a benefit to us if the limit was increased. Additionally, the way we use the tool for generating reports can be made better. They should add some drag-and-drop rules without the need of programming these rules using some programming language. It would be helpful if we did not need someone that was technically advanced to be able to do it with, such as someone with no IT background. Having a reporting tool without code would be great."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics to find some evidence or outlier in our analysis about the application of the public health service and public money in the sector in Brazil. We are a public institution that is responsible for auditing other public institutions. We use these kinds of tools to find some evidence and outliers to audit with a little bit more documents or evidence.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics are the user experience because it is easy to make analyses, load different databases, and different resources. Our end users can do the analysis by themselves without IT supervising. This is a great aspect of the solution, it's better for our environment.

The interface of the solution is good.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics can improve by increasing the size of the files that we can load on the platform. We have some files that are too large to be loaded and it would be a benefit to us if the limit was increased. Additionally, the way we use the tool for generating reports can be made better. They should add some drag-and-drop rules without the need of programming these rules using some programming language. It would be helpful if we did not need someone that was technically advanced to be able to do it with, such as someone with no IT background. Having a reporting tool without code would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for approximately six years.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Kundan Amin - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at Dynamic Elements AS
Real User
Top 10
Captures a company's transactional data and provides great reporting
Pros and Cons
  • "Can capture all the transactional data throughout a company."
  • "Non-structured data is unavailable with this product."

What is our primary use case?

 I'm a senior consultant.

What is most valuable?

For those working in the retail sector, this product can capture all the transactional data throughout a company's stores, process them, and put them into the Azure Synapses. Once you have the data, you can clean and aggregate it. On top of that, it has a reporting tool so you can connect to those Data Warehouse Synapses and pull up your reports which can then be used to prepare the dashboards and enable more insight.

What needs improvement?

Non-structured data is unavailable with this product. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Synapse is serverless architecture, so you can scale as and when required. It makes no difference if there are 100 users or 1,000 users. We have around 50,000 end users.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is generally quite good. They follow up relatively quickly although it can sometimes take more time if it requires an SOP to follow up. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It's a matter of connecting to your visual studio or management studio.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to understand your business needs and choose an appropriate solution based on the industry you work in and what needs to be achieved. There are a lot of tools available on the market, it's important to get the right one. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Salam Romim - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Intelligent Software Research & Development Engineer at Orange Innovation Egypt
Reseller
Top 10
Provides real-time reporting, and comes with reliable support and a strong community
Pros and Cons
  • "Synapse Analytics gives you information and reports in real-time."
  • "-"
  • "The platform is not flexible, and the graphical user interface needs to be improved because the interface makes it hard for the end user to use it."

What is our primary use case?

I use this solution for client service forecasting. I work with medium-sized businesses, and I work through a virtual machine.

What is most valuable?

Synapse Analytics gives you information and reports in real-time.

What needs improvement?

The platform is not flexible, and the graphical user interface needs to be improved because the interface makes it hard for the end user to use it.

Also, artificial intelligence could be used to improve analytics.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the solution for over a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution gets support, which helps its stability.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft's technical support is good when I compare it with other platforms like Oracle. You can also fix many problems yourself because Microsoft has an active community.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy if you have information about analytics visualization and data warehousing. It's easy enough to install and configure the blade. It takes one day to deploy the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive at the enterprise level. The license is monthly.

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft is a good platform because it's compatible with data warehouse, power analytics, and visualization, and you now have excellent machine learning and AI tools like GPT-4. The platform is also very stable, and support can be migrated for software.

I rate Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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PeerSpot user
Alekhya  Golla - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Straightforward solution with great notebooks and monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "Synapse Analytics' best features are notebooks, pipelines, and monitoring."
  • "Synapse Analytics is generally stable, but its performance can be slow when performing very large datasets."

What is our primary use case?

I mainly use Synapse Analytics to gather data, do aggregations, and generate reports.

What is most valuable?

Synapse Analytics' best features are notebooks, pipelines, and monitoring.

What needs improvement?

An improvement to Azure Synapse would be more templates for specific domains. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Synapse Analytics for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Synapse Analytics is generally stable, but its performance can be slow when performing very large datasets.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Synapse Analytics is definitely scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft's technical support is fast and responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used Databricks.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, and I would rate the experience as 4.5 out of 5.

What was our ROI?

We're getting a good ROI from Synapse Analytics.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I understand that Synapse Analytics' pricing is lower than Informatica's.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I also evaluated Informatica Cloud Integrations but felt that Synapse was more straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

I would give Synapse Analytics a rating of nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Systems Analyst at a non-profit with 201-500 employees
Real User
Easy to use, good performance, and useful documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics are how easy and quick it is to set up the linked services."
  • "When I was trying to link services to an SFTP site it was not able to do all the possible encryption that I needed. They can improve by adding more encryption options."

What is our primary use case?

We have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as our proof of concept in our data warehouse. As for the analytics part, we have not used it because we do not have any SQL pools. We think it is a bit more than we need because our data is not implicated and the data sets are not very large. It is mostly been used for the detection functions and to link up the sources.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics are how easy and quick it is to set up the linked services.

What needs improvement?

When I was trying to link services to an SFTP site it was not able to do all the possible encryption that I needed. They can improve by adding more encryption options.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for approximately six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is incredibly stable. 

The only thing that has not been stable are the pipelines that we are using runtime integration on our on-premise server and something is slowing everything down, it might be a particular ODBC connection. I am not sure if that is due to the Microsoft platform or it might be some other setup or settings that are causing the issue. However, other than this issue, the solution has been brilliant. It has been very reliable and stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. I have changed the interface and most of the operations can be done from the interface by clicking a few buttons, it is quick and easy.

At the moment we only have approximately four people using the solution because it is a data warehouse creation in the back end. We have not reached the stage where our staff will use the product but we are building a single customer view using the platform and we will be increase usage in the future.

How was the initial setup?

The initial installation is straightforward. There is a lot of documentation provided by Microsoft making it very easy to get started.

What was our ROI?

Having used the serverless option for the database has saved us a lot of money.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We chose the serverless option for the database which has saved us a lot of money. Our costs are approximately £600 per month.

What other advice do I have?

It is beneficial to always plan exactly what the main aims are and then choose the solution that can do it. If you want something quick, I set something up without any knowledge with Azure in three weeks. Once you get going, everything will be at your fingertips.

I rate Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Download our free Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.