Azure Synapse
Azure Synapse is a powerful data analytics platform that offers a range of features and services to streamline data processing and integration (Figure 5-9).
Figure 5-9. Azure Synapse ingests, analyzes, and visualizes In Power BI from a single platform
SQL and Spark Pools
One of its key components is the SQL Analytics engine, which supports both traditional data warehousing and Big Data analytics. This engine allows users to run complex SQL queries on large datasets stored in Azure Data Lake Storage or dedicated SQL pools.
Azure Synapse also integrates with Apache Spark, an open-source analytics engine known for its speed and scalability. By leveraging Spark capabilities, users can perform Big Data processing, machine learning, and data exploration tasks within the Azure Synapse environment with its Spark pool.
Data Integration Features
Data integration is another important aspect of Azure Synapse, offering the ability to ingest data from various sources such as Azure Blob storage, Azure Data Lake Storage, and on-premises data sources. The platform provides connectors, data movement activities, and data mapping features to facilitate the data ingestion process.
For structured and semi-structured data storage and analysis, Azure Synapse includes Synapse SQL Pools, a fully managed and scalable data warehousing solution. This feature utilizes a massive parallel processing architecture to efficiently handle large volumes of data.
To support Big Data workloads, Azure Synapse integrates with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, a secure and scalable storage solution. This integration allows users to centrally store and manage structured and unstructured data within the platform.
Analytics and Power BI
Furthermore, Azure Synapse seamlessly integrates with Microsoft’s Power BI, a popular business intelligence and visualization tool. This integration enables users to create compelling visualizations and dashboards, extracting valuable insights from their data.