Azure SQL Data Warehouse Overview

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a scalable, specialized data storage service that delivers high performance on large queries. SQL Data Warehouse provides high-performance query and analytic capabilities. The service is designed for large-scale data warehouses and can scale up to multiple petabyte sizes. However, traditional archival data warehouses for periodic analysis and reporting may not benefit from the high-performance query capabilities. Also, many existing data warehouses and applications will require recoding prior to migrating to the service.

How It Works

The service is built on the code base of SQL Server 2017’s database engine and, in general, is compatible with most SQL Server functionality. It relies on two technologies that are brought together in the service to provide high-end performance:

Parallel processing distributes SQL query workloads across multiple VMs to query data stored in multiple partitions, which can result in significant performance gains, and it can be scaled to meet performance demands without requiring schema changes.