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Amazon EMR vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EMR
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (3rd)
Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Amazon EMR is 4.5%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is 9.1%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Quan Vu - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides efficient data processing features and has good scalability
We need to have a data pipeline tool to ensure consistent data processing for the initial setup. We create a framework, read the code, and execute it in a data catalog. The size of the maintenance team depends on the project and the use cases. Usually, one backup team of four or five DevOps executives takes care of the backend and database. We need to separate our environments into production and development. We use GitHub for source control, Jenkins for the deployment pipeline, and a standard CI/CD tool to deploy code changes into production. We need to develop a deployment framework so developers only need to provide the code for their projects. The underlying engine then deploys the code, reads it, addresses the EMR filter, executes it, and completes the data processing.
Sunil Gidwani - PeerSpot reviewer
No competitors provide the entire solution to one place
I rate Azure Synapse Analytics eight out of 10. No competitors provide the entire solution to one place like Synapse. For example, a database just focuses moving and manipulating data, etc. But Synapse is like an all-inclusive workspace. I advise other people to go with Databricks Notebook if you need a computation engine. It has a solid SQL storage procedure. Suppose you are dealing with complex transformation logic and manipulation of run-time data flows. In that case, it's better to use Databricks than any Microsoft ADF. DataBricks looks more promising in terms of computing in memory, so we integrated Databricks in Synapse.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The security of the managed workflow and the managed services are the best features for us. Since we inherited their security model and it's all managed services, those are the key benefits for our clients."
"It has a variety of options and support systems."
"Amazon EMR's most valuable features are processing speed and data storage capacity."
"We are using applications, such as Splunk, Livy, Hadoop, and Spark. We are using all of these applications in Amazon EMR and they're helping us a lot."
"The solution is pretty simple to set up."
"This is the best tool for hosts and it's really flexible and scalable."
"The ability to resize the cluster is what really makes it stand out over other Hadoop and big data solutions."
"It allows users to access the data through a web interface."
"Azure elasticity allows us to scale as much as we want, and it is pay-as-you-go, so we can scale up as we need to."
"The features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems."
"The integrated workspace in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics where everything comes together, such as Power BI and Data Factory, is very good. Additionally, the ability to do dedicated SQL pooling is a benefit."
"One central workspace to manage everything for your data warehouse including visualization."
"The pricing seems to be quite fair."
"The solution has been working well overall."
"Synapse Analytics gives you information and reports in real-time."
"I like how Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics integrates with other Microsoft solutions."
 

Cons

"The dashboard management could be better. Right now, it's lacking a bit."
"We don't have much control. If we have multiple users, if they want to scale up, the cost will go and increase and we don't know how we can restrict that price part."
"Modules and strategies should be better handled and notified early in advance."
"The solution can become expensive if you are not careful."
"The initial setup was time-consuming."
"There were times where they would release new versions and it seemed to end up breaking old versions, which is very strange."
"The product's features for storing data in static clusters could be better."
"There is no need to pay extra for third-party software."
"I would like to see better integration with Active Directory, because we have had problems, and we still do."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"The solution should offer a serverless model like Snowflake."
"I am pretty sure that there are areas that need improvement but I just can think of them off the top of my head."
"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."
"I would like to see version control implemented into the data warehouse."
"The major challenge that we're seeing with Azure Synapse is around security concerns. The way it is working right now, it has Managed VNet by Microsoft option, similar to the implementation of Azure Databricks, which may pose a concern for financial institutions. For managed environments, the banks have very strict policies around data being onboarded to those environments. For some confidential applications, the banks have the policy to encrypt it with their own key, so it is sort of like Bring Your Own Key, but it is not possible to manage the resources with Microsoft or Databricks, which is probably the major challenge with Azure Synapse. There should be more compatibility with SQL Server. It should be easier to migrate solutions between different environments because right now, it is not really competitive. It is not like you can go and install SQL Database in some other environment. You will have to go through some migration projects, which probably is one of the major showstoppers for any bank. When they consider Synapse, they not only consider the investment in the actual service; they also consider the cost of the migration process. When you scale out or scale down your system, it becomes unavailable for a few minutes. Because it is a data warehouse environment, it is not such a huge deal, but it would be great if they can improve it so that the platform is available during the change of configuration."
"The initial setup process needs improvement. When you're moving to the cloud it takes a bit of time. It would be great if they could implement something that would make it faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten. It can be expensive since it's a managed service, and if you are not careful, you can run into unexpected charges. You can make a mistake that costs you tens of thousands of dollars. That's happened to us twice, so I'm sensitive to it. We're still trying to work on that. Our smallest client probably spends a hundred thousand dollars yearly on licensing, while our largest is well over a million."
"Amazon EMR's price is reasonable."
"Amazon EMR is not very expensive."
"The cost of Amazon EMR is very high."
"There is a small fee for the EMR system, but major cost components are the underlying infrastructure resources which we actually use."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"There is no need to pay extra for third-party software."
"You don't need to pay for licensing on a yearly or monthly basis, you only pay for what you use, in terms of underlying instances."
"You have to be very careful with one specific service inside Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics which is called the Sequel Data Warehouse Dedicated. It is very reliable and performs well, but it's expensive. You need to define the tier well because you can choose between several tiers and you have to define which suits your needs and not overperform the tier because it's quite expensive."
"All of the prices are available online."
"Price is dependent of the use case of the customer. Customers are not likely to only use this as an individual platform/database, they are likely to bundle it with the Azure stack."
"The price of the package not expensive and depends on how much it is used."
"The cost of the solution depends on the type of license we choose, such as pay-as-you-go, one-year reserve, or three-year reserve."
"The solution is expensive at the enterprise level."
"The computer and storage costs are totally separate which allows you to work independently or manage costs."
"We have a licensing cost to pay."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Educational Organization
44%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EMR?
Amazon EMR is a good solution that can be used to manage big data.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EMR?
I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten. It can be expensive since it's a managed service, and if you are not careful, you can run into unexpected charges. You can make a mistake that costs you...
What needs improvement with Amazon EMR?
The solution can become expensive if you are not careful.
How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
The product is easy to use, and anybody can easily migrate to advanced DB.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
The cost is reasonable for our company. There is no license cost; we pay only for Azure Compute's costs. It is important to manage the cost efficiently on a daily basis.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic MapReduce
Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Yelp
Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EMR vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.