Data Analytics

Could an Azure SQL Database be used as a Cloud Warehouse?

Technical Guide: Comparing the Azure SQL Database with Azure Synapse Analytics, differences and pros/ cons of each solution to help you decide.

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Is your organisation thinking about implementing a data warehouse solution in the cloud?
You could be looking at Azure, but are unsure on what solution to go for?

If so, this technical guide, will help you understand the difference between Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics and decide on the suitability of an Azure SQL Database as a warehouse solution by providing pros and cons of this approach. 

Fill out the form below to download the guide today or get in touch for a chat.

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    What is the difference between Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics?

    Comparing the Azure SQL Database with Azure Synapse Analytics (f.k.a. Azure SQL Data Warehouse), it comes down to a distinction between Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

    • OLTP = Azure SQL Database / Azure SQL Managed Instance – best at storing/querying data
    • OLAP = Azure Synapse Analytics (f.k.a. Azure SQL Data Warehouse) / Dedicated SQL Pool – tailored to big data (TBs) due to its indexing and parallelisation.

    If your organisation’s use case is for a solution to store data that you are going to import on a regular basis and then perform analytic functions, then your requirements would fit with OLAP.

    But in case you need a solution that serves as a backend on a web application, where you will be doing a lot of CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations, then your requirements are for a typical SQL Server database or OLTP.

    Azure Synapse Analytics

    Pros and Cons

    A diagram shows the Pros and Cons of Azure Synapse Analytics

    However, you can choose to use Azure SQL database/ Azure SQL Managed Instance (OLTP) solution, that would be used not as a typical SQL Server backend but as a warehouse solution for reporting.

    Azure SQL Database as a Warehouse

    Pros and Cons

    A diagram shows the Pros and Cons of Azure SQL Database as a Warehouse