Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Reviews

We have implemented our data warehouse on Synapse.

The solution has been reliable so far.

The product is scalable, or, at least, that is my understanding. 

We've had a good experience with technical support in general. They are helpful. 

The solution has proven to be very user-friendly.

Right now, we are really struggling with the performance. it's not as good as we had hoped. 

I cannot recall coming across any missing features. 

One problem is that getting the query cost is not easy. I need to use multiple tools. It can be accessed through the web, or we have Azure Data Studio, or SSMS, and I only get the query cost in SSMS, the SQL Server Management Studio. In other tools, I'm not getting it. For example, in the web version or in Azure Data Studio, it is not available. They need to make it accessible in both of those places as well. 

I haven't used the solution for very long. 

The performance on offer is lackluster. We were hoping for better. 

That said, it is reliable, and if I get the required performance, I am happy with it. 

While I haven't really tested the scalability, it is my impression that the solution can scale and it shouldn't be an issue for any company to do so.

Technical support is good. They are helping us in improving the performance. We're quite satisfied with the level of service they are offing us. They are helpful and responsive. 

I did not handle the initial setup. That was handled by another party. Therefore, I don't have any insights into the process or how easy or difficult it was to implement. 

I don't have any insights into the licensing process. It is implemented on our client's side, and therefore, I'm not involved in that.

We're just customers and end-users. My company does not have any relationship. It's our client who has a relationship with Microsoft.

I'm not sure which version we are using, however, I would guess it is the latest version. I'm not 100% sure.

Since the solution is still new to me, and I am having issues with performance, it's too early to say if I would recommend the solution to other users or companies. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

We are using it internally and afterward some of the outcomes are made public, either to customers or in different projects.

It's mainly for preparing internal documents when we use Word. Otherwise, we use it for externally or for a lot of PowerPoint and Excel for budget purposes. Being a small company, we don't need a very sophisticated software solution, so with an Excel spreadsheet, we can handle the different budget of different projects simultaneously.

When connecting one project to the other, especially when it's handled by the same project director, the possibility of linking one spreadsheet to the other has been useful. Also, when using a Word document and making a link to another document based on an Excel spreadsheet, that's very useful. It's also great that we can interrelate one document to the other and sometimes one project to the other.

The macro functions of Excel are very useful. 

The stability is pretty good.

The solution has the potential to scale.

The macro functions, though useful, are not totally user-friendly. Some people have difficulties in learning them.

If the project keeps growing we will need to link some of the documents to the data warehouse. However, at that time, I'm not sure about the possibility of keeping the same systems that we are using right now. We may need some kind of migration. I cannot say for sure, as I am not an expert. We'll need advice on that.

The initial setup is not straightforward.

The solutions not user-friendly and does require training of some sort.

The solution requires a lot of the memory of the different devices.

We've been using the solution for a while. We use it pretty much every day and have used it over the past 12 months.

My intention is to increase productivity. As long as a project can still be handled the way they are, we will keep using the current system. If we see a better alternative with better productivity achievement, we will most probably think about migration. For now, we find it to be stable and acceptable.

We do plan to increase usage and we may hire a consultant to help with an expansion in a few months. This will likely happen, however, anything can change in terms of the business and the larger industry.

Scalability is good. I foresee scalability in terms of the possibility of using more features and the only difficult thing that I see already is the macros of the Excel spreadsheets. I also know that it has a good opportunity for scalability, in terms of the more complex tasks that can be achieved. 

Currently, we have ten people on the solution.

We use an outsourcing service for technical support. We've been satisfied with their level of service.

We haven't used a different product. We've always used Microsoft.

The initial setup is complex. It's not straightforward.

In many ways, implementation is a never-ending process, as there are always things to improve. In a few months, most of our people are familiar with the product and have a good sense of the basics, however, there's always more to do.

There was actually one consultant at the beginning of the project. We will also definitely need someone for future migration. However, it's not something that we are considering at present. It's something we'll need to do probably in the next few months. It will depend on the growth of the business.

The licensing is okay. There might be a few extra fees in addition to the standard license.

I'm just an end-user and customer.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I'd rate them higher if they could make it more user-friendly in terms of those more sophisticated capabilities that the system offers. Also, the training requires long hours. That's something difficult to organize when people have to be allocated to specific training sessions, instead of being on the projects. There's a kind of complex way of balancing the possibility of some people using the more sophisticated solutions and getting trained. 

We have a huge amount of data, and we need a platform where we can process the data using Spark clusters. We wanted an environment that included databases that are capable of parallel processing, and Azure Synapse was one of the best for that.

This product has given us a lot of processing power with the database, and at the backend as well.

The most valuable feature is the level of processing power, and being able to complete tasks in parallel. This is the feature that attracts us the most because we have a lot of data that we need to process in a short time.

This is a user-friendly environment.

Integration with other products is an area that can be improved.

I have been working with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for between five and six months.

Synapse definitely seems like a stable product.

Synapse Analytics is deployed in a cloud environment and one of the best advantages of this is that it provides scalability.

I have not had any experience with Microsoft technical support.

I also have experience with the services available on AWS.

Configuring this solution was easy.

We implemented it with our in-house team. I was part of the team, one of my colleagues was the solution architect, and we have some engineers that assisted us. It was a team effort.

The costs are billed such that we pay for what we use, which is a good thing. For example, we have an environment where we don't need access to certain services, so we don't have to pay for them.

Compared to the services available on AWS, this solution is a little bit pricey.

At this point, Synapse Analytics is fulfilling all of our requirements for the use cases that we have.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The solution is generally used as more of an Analytical Data Warehouse. It's more of an offline enterprise scale. Sometimes I've used it from a marketing perspective, as a marketing data platform. I've not really used it from a risk and the enterprise center as it tends to be more back office, and therefore less around the customer, and more around the finance procurement of HR risk and that type of thing.

The solution is scalable.

It's better than a similar solution offered by Amazon.

Technical support is okay in terms of the help they provide.

The product could be easier to use. For example, I find Snowflake more user-friendly. They should offer simpler operations.

The initial setup could be faster.

Technical support can get expensive as they charge per use. The product could do more around crowdsourcing to help users find answers or answer questions without having to resort to contacting technical support directly.

The product could be more feature-rich.

They should look at some of what AWS and Snowflake are doing. They've both got a feature stack and also push the integration of things. This is a little bit lacking with Azure.

The analytics side of the solution is pretty weak right now. 

I have used this solution for a while. I used it before it was even called Synapse - when it was just Azure SQL Data Warehouse. It's been three or four years.

Technical support is okay, however, it can get expensive. The more you use it, the more it costs. I do not like this particular model.

I also have experience using Snowflake. I use both products. I originally started using Snowflake in 2017.

The solution takes longer to set up than I would like. There are a lot of questions that need to be addressed with the customer, and this can draw out the process. 

You do have to pay more the more you use technical support.

Clients have had a free year and then a monthly cost that they need to pay for licensing and access.

I don't use it personally, as I'm a consultant. However, if I implement it for clients, I do use it.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. There's still some work that needs to be done on the product that can make it a lot better.

I would recommend the solution to a company if they were a Microsoft shop. In that case, it's the obvious thing for them to do and it's a good choice.

The solution's scalability is very, very good. It's one of the most important aspects for us. 

We really need our data to stay in Western Europe. As an insurance company, it's important for our business. Microsoft can guarantee that it stays in Western Europe. That way, data is not processed anywhere else.

It's widely acknowledged as an excellent product throughout the industry. There's a lot of knowledge about it in the Netherlands as well. It makes it very easy to find a consultancy and also employees who can help us with its modern architecture.

The initial setup is easy. You don't need extensive training. It's an intuitive process.

What I would like to see is a possibility for time travel on the data. For instance, a financial department would like to do an analysis of the data set as it was for the first of the month while another department wants to run the analysis about how things went yesterday or last week. They have different starting points for the queries. I've seen Snowflake handle tasks such as these. It's got a feature called time shuffling, which can show me what's there on a certain variety of dates. It's very convenient.

It would be great if we could query the data of the day as well as in the data warehouse. 

They should have scalable memory processor options for the data warehouse.

While the solution is flexible, sometimes this works against the user.

We're new to the solution. We started using it last year around April or May. It's been less than 12 months so far.

The solution is scalable. It's online. That means you can scale it online and can stop the database to change the scaling of it.

We've had a few calls with technical support. They were very helpful and responsive. We have been satisfied with their level of support.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not overly complex. A company shouldn't have any issues with the initial setup or implementation. You don't need deep technical insights to have training.

You can create a floor space in an hour. That's no problem. Afterward, you have to work with the data and do a few more things in terms of configuration, however, it's not hard.

We are using the latest version of the solution.

I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

I would recommend Synapse, however, it depends on which industry an organization is working in. It can be complex, and often, you have to choose between several tools. They're all able to do the same job, they're just more industry-specific in some cases. 

If you want to transform your data, you can choose between the database, data factory, and SQL, and even other tools.

This means it is very flexible, however, it also makes it difficult to administer. It's not that one of these sources is harder per se. It's more about what is the best for the job. Sometimes you create something and it doesn't perform and you have to start from scratch.

We are a solution provider and we provide different tools for our clients. Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse is one of the solutions that we have implemented.

The use cases vary depending on the client. We have a couple of clients who are moving their data from on-premises to Azure databases, and they are using this solution primarily for reporting analytics. They also use visualization tools on top of the reporting.

The main advantage of using this solution is its ability to scale and handle very large amounts of data, in the petabyte range.

When we are not using this solution we can simply shut it down saving us costs, which is a nice advantage.

With respect to what needs to be improved, concurrent connectivity has some limitations. 

We have been using Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse for about one year.

This solution is stable.

We are satisfied with the scalability.

A lot of people use the analytics and I would estimate it to be between 50 and 100 users. Most of them are business users, although some are power users who built the system for them.

It is good technical support in general, we find. We were in contact with them when we were doing a migration from on-premises to the cloud, and it was very nice.

The initial setup is straightforward.

This solution is being changed from day-to-day. Now it has become Synapse Analytics and a lot of things are being added to it. I'm curious to see how that turns out. They have a lot of new integrations and features, including predictive analysis and big data integration. They may have solved the issues with concurrent connectivity, so I'm curious to put my hands on it.

The product is being upgraded and updated to support a lot of analytic features, and it is a great tool to use.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We are a software development company and this is one of the solutions that we recommend to our clients. The applications that we develop make use of this technology.

Using Azure SQL Data Warehouse means that you don't have to worry about big servers.

The best part is the easy and user-friendly administration and handling of the data.

The configuration for things like high-availability could be more user-friendly for non-technical users.

We have been using Azure SQL Data Warehouse for almost twelve years.

This is a stable solution with no issues.

Scalability is the best part of going with a cloud-based solution. I don't have to worry about server space. 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. What we propose to the people who are implementing this solution is to start with the minimum requirements and then scale up based on demand.

We have not seen any problems with technical support. We have Microsoft certification, so we very rarely contact them for any help. Normally, we handle the support for our clients.

The initial setup is straightforward. The requirements are very clear, and there is not much of a problem when you're doing it.

One of the recent upgrades we have done that included high-availability, loading the data, and setting everything up, took about a month and a half.

The licensing fees for this solution are on a pay-per-use basis, and not very expensive.

The core strength of Microsoft technologies is ease of use and administration, regardless of the type of product.

This is a good solution to go with, the cost is reasonable, and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

It is useful for Azure services. I am using its latest version.

Its seamless integration with Azure services is most valuable. If somebody wants to use all Azure services, it is the best solution.

The ability to integrate with different Azure services from within the Synapse Analytics workspace is also valuable.

Its stability is an issue. They have been releasing a version every six months to one year, which means that there are many versions available, and clients are not up to speed on the latest one that they're offering. From a stability point of view, they could do better. They're still upgrading their Synapse Analytics workspace, and it is not that stable. Its scalability can also be better.

I would like to see support for cross-DB queries.

I have been working with this solution for three years.

Its stability is an issue because they're still upgrading the Synapse Analytics workspace.

It is scalable to a certain limit. It is not as scalable as Snowflake, but it is scalable.

There are many available versions of Azure Synapse, such as Azure Synapse SQL Datawarehouse, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Synapse Analytics workspace. You need to be aware of the features that you are looking for and accordingly choose the offering.

I would rate it a five out of 10.