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Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics pros and cons

Vendor: Microsoft
4.0 out of 5
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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers strong scalability and can handle large volumes of data efficiently.
Its integration capabilities with other Azure services such as Data Factory and Power BI are valuable.
The platform provides flexibility in data processing, allowing seamless and adaptable approaches to analytics.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is easy to set up and use, making it suitable for various industries.
It efficiently supports both structured and unstructured data, providing a simplified data transformation process.

CONS

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics needs better integration with Active Directory and additional connectors for improved vendor compatibility.
The initial setup process and scalability can be complex and time-consuming, requiring improvements for a smoother transition to the cloud.
Customers find the pricing model challenging due to unpredictability and high costs, particularly for small businesses.
Greater stability and performance enhancements are needed, especially concerning large dataset processing and concurrency issues.
Increased support for data types, such as non-structured data, and enhanced security features are necessary, especially for industry-specific requirements.
 

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Pros review quotes

Mukund Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 19, 2022
What I found most valuable in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is that it's native only for Azure, so you get better performance and there's no issue. To explain further, many different types of data come, in particular, structured and unstructured data. For audit purposes, there's also unstructured data, so the most important aspect is that with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, you have the capability of using both technologies, meaning that you can use or mix structured and unstructured data which is important. This can also be done in Hadoop, and on other platforms, so you have everything in one place. You don't have to worry about how to manage both structured and unstructured data and where to store information. With Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, you can take care of everything, particularly in Azure. The solution also provides you with many features apart from analytics, for example, storage which makes it better.
reviewer1185990 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2020
We also like governance. It looks at what the requirements are for the company to identify the best way to ensure compliance is met when you move to the cloud.
MT
May 17, 2021
The features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems.
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
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reviewer1394304 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 29, 2020
Microsoft provides both the platform and the data center, so you don't have to look for a cloud vendor. It saves you from having to deal with two vendors for the same task.
AB
Dec 31, 2020
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.
reviewer1521174 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 20, 2021
The ability to scale out services on-demand and scale them down when they are not required is most valuable. You are in control of your expenditures, and you are also in control of the horsepower that you need. That's a major advantage.
MB
Sep 10, 2020
They are available on the Cloud, and the platform is very intuitive.
Peter Aderoju - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 2, 2024
It's quite quick for querying, even with large datasets, and it's scalable. It's also flexible to use, so it's easy to update and get data quickly without wasting time.
reviewer1003956 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 13, 2019
The most valuable feature is the scalability.
reviewer1072665 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 28, 2021
The stability is pretty good.
 

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Cons review quotes

Mukund Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 19, 2022
An area for improvement in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is its user interface. You can use it for analytical purposes, but its platform should be a little bit more user-friendly. Another small point for improvement in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is its stability. It's good currently, but it could still be improved. Microsoft is combining different tools and technologies into one solution, so in the future, I'm expecting to see even more improvement in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. An additional feature I'd like to see in the next version of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the drag-and-drop feature. If you're doing some integrations where you can write Scala or you have SPARK programming or SQL, or you're combining different programming, the process should be seamless, and you should be able to drag and drop in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. When doing reporting in the solution, you should also be able to drag and drop. There should be connectors available and a drag-and-drop feature available in the user interface of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, so you won't have to worry about how all processes would work together. You need to be able to drag and drop even from the backend, and having this feature will make the solution more user-friendly.
reviewer1185990 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 13, 2020
It would be beneficial to take the top vendors and identify some kind of straightforward action to work with them. Instead of having to employ a separate vendor tool to be able to move this, it would be nice to be able to go through Microsoft.
MT
May 17, 2021
Indicating what areas need improvement in this solution is a difficult question because the organizations that I am working for are really new in this area. However, an even better more simple interface, or perhaps an extension of a connector app store solution, would be helpful.
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1394304 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 29, 2020
The performance needs to improve in future releases.
AB
Dec 31, 2020
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.
reviewer1521174 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 20, 2021
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.
MB
Sep 10, 2020
It needs strong support for social media, internet data, and native support for NoSQL.
Peter Aderoju - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 2, 2024
One area that could be improved is the schema management.
reviewer1003956 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 13, 2019
It's pay as you go, so you never know what your bill is going to be beforehand, and that's scary for customers. If you have someone who makes a mistake and the program's a loop that is running all night, you could receive a very expensive bill.
reviewer1072665 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 28, 2021
The macro functions, though useful, are not totally user-friendly. Some people have difficulties in learning them.