Azure Synapse Analytics

Below are the top questions I am seeing from customers about Azure Synapse Analytics (formally called Azure SQL Data Warehouse), and the blogs that I have wrote that try to answer each question (top asked questions in bold):

1. What is the difference between the GA version of Synapse and the one in public preview? Azure Synapse Analytics confusion
2. What are the newest features for the SQL Pool? Azure Synapse Analytics new features, Microsoft Ignite Announcements 2020
3. What are the performance options when using Synapse and Power BI? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI performance
4. Can I run Power BI dashboards against Synapse? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI concurrency
5. Can you explain the new SQL on-demand in Synapse and the top FAQ’s about it? SQL on-demand in Azure Synapse Analytics
6. What is a “Data Lakehouse”? Data Lakehouse & Synapse
7. Do I still need to use a relational database and what are the tradeoffs to not using one and just using a data lake? Data Lakehouse & Synapse, Data Lakehouse defined
8. What are the cost savings using a data lake over a relational database? Data Lakehouse & Synapse
9. What are all the ways to query data in Synapse? Query options in Azure Synapse Analytics
10. Are there samples to use in Synapse? Azure Synapse Analytics overlooked features
11. How can I create federated queries in Synapse? Synapse and federated queries
12. What are all the features related to security in Synapse? Azure SQL Database & Synapse Analytics security
13. What is the difference between using external tables vs T-SQL views? External tables vs T-SQL views on files in a data lake
14. What is the difference in querying using an external table or view against a file in ADLS Gen2 vs. querying against SQL Provisioned pool? External tables vs T-SQL views on files in a data lake
15. What is the SQL query engine behind the scenes for Serverless SQL? POLARIS: The Distributed SQL Engine in Azure Synapse

Power BI

Below are the top questions I am seeing from customers about Power BI, and the blogs that I have wrote that try to answer each question:

1. What are Composite models and Aggregations? Power BI new feature: Composite models
2. What are Dataflows? Can I clean data with Power BI? Power BI: Dataflows, Where should I clean my data?
3. What is the Microsoft Power Platform? The Microsoft Power Platform
4. Can Power BI access data in ADLS Gen2? Ways to access data in ADLS Gen2
5. What are performance options when using Power BI against Synapse? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI performance
6. Can I use Power BI dashboards against Synapse? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI concurrency
7. How can I stream data into Power BI and do real-time updates? Power BI Real-time Streaming
8. What are the various type of security options in Power BI? Power BI Security
9. What are all the ways to share dashboards and reports in Power BI? Power BI Sharing
10. What are the ways to monitor performance and usage in Power BI? Monitoring Power BI
11. What were the latest announcements about Power BI at Ignite? Microsoft Ignite Announcements 2020
12. What are other questions you hear customers asking? Power BI FAQ
13. With the new features in Power BI, is Azure Analysis Services (AAS) still needed? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI performance

Modern data warehouse

Below are the top questions I am seeing from customers looking to build a modern data warehouse in the cloud, and the blogs that I have wrote that try to answer each question (I have updated most of these blogs):

1. Do I need a data lake? Data lake details
2. Do I need a relational data warehouse (can I just use a data lake)? Is the traditional data warehouse dead?
3. Why have a data warehouse if you can just use a cube/tabular model? The need for having both a DW and cubes
4. If I have a data warehouse, do I also need a cube/tabular model? The need for having both a DW and cubes
5. Where do I clean my data? Where should I clean my data?
6. What is the Common Data Model (CDM)? Common Data Model
7. How should I organize the data lake? For this question I defer to my favorite blogger, Melissa Coates (SQL Chick): Zones in a Data Lake, Data Lake Use Cases and Planning Considerations, FAQs About Organizing a Data Lake
8. What is the future of Hadoop? The difficulty in answering this question relies in exactly what is “Hadoop” anymore (it used to consist of HDFS, YARN, MapReduce and tools built on top of these such as Hive and Spark). Products like Azure Data Lake Store Gen2 are HDFS compatible which I see being around for a real long time due to the rise of data lakes (I see HDFS as the primary source for a data lake). Meanwhile, SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters creates HDFS data nodes and includes Apache Spark. See Did Hadoop kill Data Warehousing or Save it?
9. Should I put all our structured data into our data lake? Should I load structured data into my data lake?
10. How does a NoSQL database like Cosmos DB compare to a relational database? Understanding Cosmos DB and Relational databases vs Non-relational databases
11. Can you explain the use cases for big data products? Use cases of various products for a big data cloud solution
12. What are all the products I can use to clean my data? What product to use to transform my data?
13. Is Azure Data Factory “SSIS in the cloud”? Azure Data Factory Data Flow
14. Can the cloud save us money? Cost savings of the cloud
15. What do you think of data virtualization? Data Virtualization vs Data Warehouse, Data Virtualization vs. Data Movement
16. Do you know a good workshop to learn big data technologies? Big Data Workshop
17. What are common big data architectures? Big Data architectures
18. What exactly is an Operational Data Store (ODS)? Operational Data Store (ODS) Defined
19. What is the difference between Azure SQL Database vs SQL Data Warehouse (SMP vs MPP)? Azure SQL Database vs SQL Data Warehouse
20. Do I need a data warehouse? Why You Need a Data Warehouse
21. What is the difference between a data warehouse and a data mart? Data Warehouse vs Data Mart
22. What are all the latest features added to Blob Storage and ADLS Gen2? More Azure Blob Storage enhancements, Azure Storage tips, Query Acceleration for ADLS, More ADLS Gen2 enhancements
23. What is the Delta Lake? Databricks Delta Lake
24. With the new features in Power BI, is Azure Analysis Services (AAS) still needed? Azure Synapse Analytics & Power BI performance
25. What is DataOps? DevOps for databases: “DataOps”

SQL Server migration to Azure

Below are the top questions I am seeing from customers looking to migrate on-prem SQL Server to Azure, and the blogs that I have wrote that try to answer each question (I have updated most of these blogs):

1. How does PaaS database high availability work? Azure SQL Database high availability
2. How does PaaS database disaster recovery work? Azure SQL Database disaster recovery, Business Continuity in SQL Database
3. How can I monitor a PaaS database? Monitoring Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database monitoring
4. What is the difference between SQL Database and SQL Data Warehouse? Azure SQL Database vs SQL Data Warehouse
5. How do I handle multi-tenants in Azure? Multi-tenant databases in the cloud
6. How does a NoSQL database like Cosmos DB compare to a relational database? Understanding Cosmos DB and Relational databases vs Non-relational databases
7. How does security work with SQL Database? Azure SQL Database security
8. How do I scale SQL Database? Scaling Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Database Read Scale-Out
9. What are the migration options and tools available? Migrate from on-prem SQL server to Azure SQL Database, Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), Microsoft database migration tools
10. How are database backups done? HA/DR for Azure SQL Database
11. What are the storage options for SQL Server in an Azure VM (IaaS)? Storage options for SQL Server database files in Azure
12. Can Azure handle large OLTP databases? Azure SQL Database Hyperscale
13. What are the benefits of a database PaaS solution over IaaS? SQL Database MI benefits
14. Can the cloud save us money? Cost savings of the cloud