Azure Synapse vs Azure SQL DB : 4 Key Differences

Do you know what IoT devices and digital transactions among other things have in common? The fact that they have all led to a data explosion. Being competitive in such a market, then, demands effective data management from businesses. Why? To extract useful insights, of course. This is where cloud-based data management solutions come into the picture. These solutions are, after all, scalable and cost effective. Interestingly, Microsoft offers two popular cloud-based data management solutions, namely, Azure Synapse and Azure SQL Database. And sure enough, they share some similarities. Yet, they have unique characteristics that render them suitable for different use cases.

In this blog, I will walk you through the key differences between Azure Synapse vs Azure SQL DB, this will help you make an informed decision about which solution to use as part of the Azure analytics services for your business.

What Is Referred To As Azure Synapse?

This Microsoft offer is an analytics platform designed to handle large datasets and complex workloads. This is why it gets a serverless architecture, allowing you to scale resources up or down based on your requirements.

What Is Referred To As Azure SQL DB?

It is a fully managed relational database service from the tech behemoth's stables. It provides excellent availability and performance. SQL DB is also deemed to be suitable for a wide range of applications, including mission critical enterprise systems. 

Azure Synapse vs Azure SQL Database: Key Differentiating Factors You Need to Know

• Workload: This offering is specifically designed to support large-scale data warehousing and analytics workloads. This is because Azure Synapse can process large datasets and execute complex queries efficiently. Before you ask, we have Synapse's architecture being optimized for parallel processing and distributed computing to thank for it. In contrast, Azure SQL Database is more of a general-purpose relational database service. But that does not mean it can't handle a broader range of workloads. Anyway, SQL DB supports both Online Transaction Processing and Online Analytical Processing workloads. While it can handle large data sets, it may not be as well-suited for very large-scale data warehousing.
• Data security: First things first, both these cloud-based data management solutions from the stables of Microsoft provide robust data security features. Both these MS data management solutions support encryption at rest and in transit, which protects data from unauthorized access. Oh, and both services also offer a variety of authentication methods and role-based access control. This allows you to specify who can access your data and what actions they can take. But Azure SQL DB provides additional security features such as dynamic data masking and row level security. Dynamic data masking conceals sensitive information from unauthorized users. Whereas row level security limits access to specific rows of data based on user roles or permissions.
• Scalability: Regarding scalability, Azure Synapse fares quite well. It can handle large datasets and supports both serverless and dedicated SQL pools. This allows you to scale resources up or down based on your requirements. It also means that you can easily adjust the resources allocated to your Azure Synapse environment. Although Azure SQL Database is scalable, it may have limitations. This is particularly true in the context of extremely large datasets. It provides a variety of deployment options, such as single databases and managed instances.
• Data backup: Both Azure Synapse and Azure SQL Database offer automatic backup and point in time restore capabilities. Did I mention that both these services also support data export and import operations for disaster recovery? This is how you can replicate your data to a secondary location and protect it from loss.

Final Words

Two powerful cloud-based data management solutions with unique features are Azure Synapse and Azure SQL Database. Synapse is best suited for complicated workloads and large-scale analytics, whereas SQL Database is better suited for relational data requirements and general-purpose applications. Businesses may manage and analyze data effectively with the help of these systems' robust security, scalability, and data backup features. By being aware of their distinctive qualities, companies can choose the best instrument to gain insightful information and spur expansion. So, which one will you pick the azure analytics services suite for your company?