Microsoft Analytics Platform System vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics comparison

Microsoft Analytics Platform System vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Analytics Platfor...

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (17th)

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (5th)

Featured Reviews

MahmoudMohamed1

Senior Data Engineer at Tatweer Educational Technologies Company - TETCO

Offers smooth data integration between systems, but requires better real-time analytics capabilities

We leverage its capabilities for many applications. We can integrate with our databases, like Oracle, MySQL, or any other, using Microsoft Integration Services. This lets us continue using private databases without paying additional licensing fees. Additionally, the license includes Analytics services and Power BI, which work on-premises, unlike most other technologies that require cloud solutions.

Read full review

Joy Maitra

Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited

Has supported data pipeline development but still requires better integration and support

The best feature of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the notebook functionality; it provides a very good interface, and we can easily do our experiments, POCs, and check things before migration or deployment to higher environments such as from development to SIT and then production. The deployment process is also much smoother. Driving data-driven insights in my organization depends upon the preparation of the data. If your data is not good, then insights won't be good, and Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics helps in preparing your data, so it is very helpful. I find Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics' native data lake support beneficial.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"This solution will connect to any database, you can combine databases, and you can create a cube or tabular model."

"Helps our customers to discover trends, which provides useful information based on their business."

"This is a well-integrated solution and that integration empowers results."

"The Cube Solution is quite different when compared to the rest of the competition and has unique functionality for advanced analytics."

"Microsoft Analytics Platform System's most valuable feature is its ecosystems and seamless integration with other Microsoft reporting platforms and databases."

"It is closely integrated with other products in the MS portfolio."

"I like that it's integrated with other Azure products."

"We leverage its capabilities for many applications. We can integrate with our databases, like Oracle, MySQL, or any other, using Microsoft Integration Services."

"The most valuable feature is the level of processing power, and being able to complete tasks in parallel."

"Synapse Analytics' best features are notebooks, pipelines, and monitoring."

"The useability, the user interface, is very user-friendly."

"We've had a good experience with technical support in general."

"The solution handles single or complex items within a second."

"The ability to scale out services on-demand and scale them down when they are not required is most valuable. You are in control of your expenditures, and you are also in control of the horsepower that you need. That's a major advantage."

"The best thing about it is that it has integration at multiple places. It can talk to more than 90 types of data sources, which is one good thing about it."

"The solution has been working well overall."

More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics pros

Cons

"Releases of new products and functionality is never accompanied by associated documentation, training and resources that adequately explain the release."

"We need better real-time analytics capabilities. It's a bit challenging for us."

"Machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities need to be more friendly for beginning users."

"The flexibility of this solution needs to be improved because you cannot make changes at every one of the different steps."

"Microsoft Analytics Platform System could have better support."

"I think the biggest problem with the product is that it does a data ingest model, which is very expensive."

"The pricing model needs to be improved."

"Functionality needs to be more up-to-date with competing products."

More Microsoft Analytics Platform System cons

"Microsoft should develop an interface to make it easier to shift from on-premise to the cloud."

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

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

"Synapse Analytics is generally stable, but its performance can be slow when performing very large datasets."

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

"I would like to see version control implemented into the data warehouse."

"The filing can be improved."

"They should automate some of the features. There are some things, such as the creation of external tables, that you have to do manually. They should be automated."

More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are currently paying $200,000 a year for all the different parts of the suite during an ingest model Microsoft now charges us $700,000 a year."

"Users have to pay extra for premium-level technical support."

"The initial price is lower than Oracle, but extensive use of SQL may lead to a higher total cost of ownership."

"I rate Microsoft Analytics Platform System a seven out of ten for pricing."

"It just depends on how big your instance is. It could be anywhere from 1,000 to 50,000 per year depending on how big your instance is. You pay based on how big you make your database. Essentially, they charge you per hour of usage."

"My company pays for the license and I am not sure about the price."

"Because it's cloud the cost is a different convention and the licensing costs are not the same."

"The costs are billed such that we pay for what we use, which is a good thing."

"I don't know about the price, but I'm trying to get a sense of the cost."

"The solution could improve by having better costing information."

"The price of this solution could be improved."

"The pricing is okay. You can pay as you go."

More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	55

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Analytics Platform System?

We leverage its capabilities for many applications. We can integrate with our databases, like Oracle, MySQL, or any other, using Microsoft Integration Services.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Analytics Platform System?

It's not too confusing. It's based on features, and we don't have to buy additional licenses.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Analytics Platform System?

We need better real-time analytics capabilities. It's a bit challenging for us. Moreover, there are some permission limitations.

How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

The product is easy to use, and anybody can easily migrate to advanced DB.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

I find the pricing of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reasonable; compared to AWS Glue or Databricks, it is reasonable.

Teradata vs Microsoft Analytics Platform System

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IBM Netezza Performance Server vs Microsoft Analytics Platform System

Compared 17% of the time

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Snowflake vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 10% of the time

SAP BW4HANA vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 7% of the time

Apache Hadoop vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Analytics Platform System

Download Microsoft Analytics Platform System product report

Microsoft Analytics Platform System report

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Download Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics product report

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Also Known As

Microsoft APS, MS Analytics Platform System

Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics

Overview

The Microsoft Analytics Platform System can meet the demands of your evolving data warehouse environment with its scale-out, massively parallel processing integrated system supporting hybrid data warehouse scenarios. It provides the ability to query across relational and non-relational data by leveraging Microsoft PolyBase and industry-leading big data technologies. It offers the lowest price per terabyte for large data warehouse workloads.

Microsoft

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an end-to-end analytics solution that successfully combines analytical services to merge big data analytics and enterprise data warehouses into a single unified platform. The solution can run intelligent distributed queries among nodes, and provides the ability to query both relational and non-relational data.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is built with these 4 components:

Synapse SQL
Spark
Synapse Pipeline
Studio

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Features

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics has many valuable key features, including:

Cloud Data Service: WIth Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can operate services (data analytics, machine learning, data warehousing, dashboarding, etc.) in a single workspace via the cloud.
Structured and unstructured data: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics supports both structured and unstructured data and allows you to manage relational and non-relational data - unlike data warehouses and lakes that tend to store them respectively.
Effective data storage: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers next-level data storage with high availability and different tiers.
Responsive data engine: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics uses Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) and is designed to handle large volumes of data and analytical workloads efficiently without any problems.
Several scripting languages: The solution provides language compatibility and supports different programming languages, such as Python, Java, Spark SQL, and Scala.
Query optimization: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics works well to facilitate limitless concurrency and performance optimization. It also simplifies workload management.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics include:

Database templates: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers industry-specific database templates that make it easy to combine and shape data.
Better business insights: With Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can expand discovery of insights from all your data and apply machine learning models to all your intelligent apps.
Reduce project development time: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics makes it possible to have a unified experience for developing end-to-end analytics, which reduces project development time significantly.
Eliminate data barriers: By using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, you can perform analytics on operational and business apps data without data movement.
Advanced security: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics provides both advanced security and privacy features to ensure data protection.
Machine Learning: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics integrates Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, and Power BI.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics users who are currently using the solution.

PeerSpot user Jael S., who is an Information Architect at Systems Analysis & Design Engineering, comments on her experience using the product, saying that it is “Scalable, intuitive, facilitates compliance and keeps your data secure”. She also says "We also like governance. It looks at what the requirements are for the company to identify the best way to ensure compliance is met when you move to the cloud."

Michel T., CHTO at Timp-iT, mentions that "the features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems."

A Senior Teradata Consultant at a tech services company says, "Microsoft provides both the platform and the data center, so you don't have to look for a cloud vendor. It saves you from having to deal with two vendors for the same task."

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Transport for London, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG, Prometeia, Tangerine, SSM Health Care, Service Corporation International

Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe,

Microsoft Analytics Platform System vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics