Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Reviews

We use the product to transform the data from the on-premise environment to the cloud. It is a flexible platform and integrates with multiple data sources.

The platform has multiple valuable use cases. They include performance, compatibility, flexibility, and cost.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics's pricing could be reduced.

We have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for five years.

I rate the platform's stability a seven or eight out of ten. It could be improved.

We manage four to five Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics customers in our environment. It is a scalable software.

The initial setup is easy using the infrastructure code. The deployment takes a maximum of a day to complete as we conduct a POC enrollment before the setup. It helps us understand the process. Later, we develop it in the production environment.

We need assistance from a third-party vendor for product implementation.

I am evaluating Oracle GoldenGate. However, it is a licensed software that induces extra costs. Instead, I want to utilize Microsoft cloud services to their full potential and avoid additional licensing costs. By doing so, I aim to reduce reliance on Oracle software throughout the migration journey, opting for cloud-native solutions that align with the goals of cost-effectiveness.

Many customers prefer using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. It allows them to develop applications in Java and .NET. It provides security, flexibility, and efficient UI as well. It enables the ease of configuring APIs and overall configurability. As a certified cloud specialist, I advise others to consider use cases and requirements while purchasing.

I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We use Synapse to build views for our data warehouse. It is the place where we get our reports and views. We ingest data into our SQL Servers and Azure SQL, then build all our reporting views within Synapse.

I'm the cloud architect, and I have a two-person DevOps team plus another enterprise architect. Five people are using the interface at any given time. 

Synapse makes it easy to integrate and onboard data from other Microsoft and Azure sources. The interface is familiar because we were using Azure Data Factory before Synapse. It made the transition even easier because the Synapse interface is exactly the same. 

Cost is always the primary pain point. However, we've gotten to the stage where we can set aside finding, and the price is reasonable for our project. 

We have used Synapse Analytics for about a year.

I rate Synapse nine out of 10 for stability. We've had some issues in the past that needed to be addressed, but those were related to how we did our transformations. We needed to learn from our mistakes and figure out how to properly schedule jobs, imports, etc. 

I rate Synapse 10 out of 10 for scalability. Scaling up Synapse is quick and easy. That's one thing I appreciate the most about it. You can scale with a click 

I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10. We have direct professional support, and they always come through for you if you run into any issues. Our tickets are never open for more than two days. 

Positive

We didn't have anything in place because we implemented Synapse for a specific project. We formulated our use case, considered our options, and decided on Synapse because ware primarily an Azure shop. Using Synapse made sense because it's easier to manage and support. 

I rate Synapse Analytics eight out of 10 for ease of setup. I've set up Synapse so many times in various environments that it's seamless. I have no issues with the product at this point.

We did extensive research and a POC before implementing Synapse Analytics. It took us a couple of days to deploy, including the POC. We had to separate our groups and stuff like that. The second step was to leverage templates for creating the environment. Everything is automated now. If want to do this again, I don't have to go to the portal. I can run it from a template. 

I rate Synapse Analytics seven out of 10. We had to learn a lot before we could get costs under control and budget appropriately. There were a lot of unknowns initially. 

I rate Azure Synapse Analytics eight out of 10. I would recommend Synapse depending on the needs you're trying to address. You need to properly build out your users and see that the technology is going to address your use case. After that, you can make an informed decision about what's best for your company. 

Companies come in all shapes and sizes. Synapse may not be a good fit for one company, but it can work well for others. Try it out first and see if it's appropriate for you.

I use Synapse Analytics to process data for transformation, create external tables, restrict user access, and for reporting.

Synapse Analytics' best feature is its ability to process large files.

Synapse Analytics' performance slows down if you don't get your distribution right because it gets queued and goes into a single node. In addition, the integration with other solutions like Power BI and Azure SQL Database is very slow and leaves a lot to be desired. In the next release, I would like to see a feature to offload Synapse files directly into Gen2.

I've been working with Synapse Analytics for about a year.

Synapse Analytics is fairly stable.

I haven't seen any issues with scalability. 

Microsoft's technical support fails to give us solutions and leaves us to figure out the issue for ourselves.

Negative

The initial setup was straightforward.

I also evaluated Redshift from Amazon, which is much more stable than Synapse Analytics but takes a lot of effort to convert into ORC and load.

I'd give Synapse Analytics a rating of seven out of ten.

We are using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics with multiple customers for data integration, data migration, and data analytics. I offer these services to my customers as part of my service organization called Edge Technologies.

Customers use the solution for analytics, such as forecasting reports. There are a lot of business cases, we customized them based on the customer.

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is its integration with the new legacy systems. Whatever application we want to integrate, we receive the reports based on the objects. The solution is easy to purchase from the cloud.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics can improve by adding more flexibility to the reports. Having more visible structures based on the area, region and country would be beneficial.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for approximately nine months in production.

The stability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is good. However, there is a global transformation and consolidation happening.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is able to scale to the needs of our requirements.

The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is easy.

We only have to pay for what we use in the solution. It's easy for the customers. It's not more than some companies, not more than 300 to 400 users. They do not need to buy other license products, such as SAP B1, or analytics tools in the market, such as Tableau.

There is going to be competition in the market with the release of SAP Cloud Analytics.

The solution does not require maintenance because it is sized-based.

I would recommend this solution to others. I have evaluated the fact sheet on the solution.

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

We are a marketing company so we help our customers with marketing strategies. The marketing is based on the final customers, and we use Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics for CDP.

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the pipeline that is the ETL tool. It's very well designed and is overall very good. We usually don't use the ETL tool in Databricks, but we use the ETL tool in this solution.

The SQL features in the solution are very good.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve the section in the solution where you can implement the Python Spark pipelines, it's not the same as in Databricks which would be better.

The data visualization in Microsoft Azure is provided by Power BI, it's not needed to have something in Synapse. The data governance tool is outside Synapse, but there is a data governance tool that is called Purview in Microsoft Azure. They need to improve the Spark part of the solution then it would be complete. 

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

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is highly stable because it's based on SQL Server technology. It's a very old technology, which is solid.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is scalable.

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

The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is simple. It's a managed service in Microsoft Azure, you only need to search for it and install it.

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.

Once a service is managed as a service in a cloud platform, the maintenance is very easy. You have to monitor it, but the maintenance infrastructure is extremely easy.

This solution is very easy once you have a Microsoft Azure subscription to go straight to Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics because it's native. However, there are other kinds of technologies one can use. I would suggest before using this solution, look at other solutions, such as Databricks or Snowflake, and not stop at the first solution that you can receive in Microsoft Azure.

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

We primarily use the solution for our cloud data warehouse. 

The usability has been excellent. 

It offers good integration. 

The product works well with other Azure products.

The initial setup is very convenient.

It is scalable.

We have found the solution to be stable. 

The security is fine.

We'd like the solution to have more analytics capability.

We would like more detail on reports so that they are easy to understand in terms of usage of data and services. It could be improved.

I've been using the solution for one year. 

It's a stable product. It is reliable. The performance is good. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches. 

We can scale the product up and down according to our needs.

We have around 100 people using the solution right now. 

My customer uses it on a daily basis.

We are satisfied with technical support. I haven't used them too much.

Neutral

I've also used Snowflake. 

Azure Synapse is a more integrated platform. With Snowflake, you need to buy it separately and run it off Microsoft. Snowflake, however, has better cost control. Snowflake is comparatively cost-efficient.

It is a straightforward setup. It's easy and not overly complex. I have not measured how long it actually takes; however, I can say the implementation is convenient. My administrator handled the setup. I did not handle it directly myself. 

The solution can get expensive, and it's hard to monitor the costs. It does depend on how you utilize it. You can configure it in a certain way.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

Our company includes 50 analysts who use the solution on a daily basis to predict customer behavior. 

The solution's best feature is its predictive analytics. 

Integration with other vendors has limitations and could be improved. 

Integration of process analytics would be a nice addition that allows us to analyze efficiency. 

I have been using the solution for six months. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is a web data warehousing and analytical platform built for enterprise environments, so it is definitely scalable. 

Technical support is very responsive and knowledgeable. 

I rate support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

We do not use other solutions because we operate in a Microsoft environment that is not expected to go to AWS.

The initial setup is complex and I rate it a four out of ten. 

The solution was implemented through a third-party vendor team. 

The solution has helped to predict sales and focus attention on enhancements that have improved the bottom line. 

I rate the ROI a six out of ten. 

I don't know specifics about pricing but I hear that it is quite expensive. For example, Power BI is not as expensive as this solution.  

The solution has superior modeling and predictive analytical abilities in comparison to Power BI. There isn't really an expectation that you would get these superior abilities in Power BI because the solutions have different purposes and use cases. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

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. 

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.

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

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is stable.

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.

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

Neutral

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.