1 Azure Synapse Analytics2 Azure Machine Learning3 Azure SQL Database Edge
That’s a lot to unpack, so let’s take a look at what Microsoft discussed concerning Azure at Ignite.
Azure Synapse Analytics
Arguably the standout announcement on day one was Azure Synapse Analytics. Now available in preview, the service automatically prepares and manages data for business intelligence applications. Microsoft describes it as an extension of Azure SQL Data Warehouse as it leverages analytic data from warehouse systems across organizations. “Today, businesses are forced to maintain two types of analytical systems — data warehouses and data lakes. Data warehouses provide critical insights on business health. Data lakes can uncover important signals on customers, products, employees, and processes,” said Azure Data corporate vice president Rohan Kumar in a blog post. “Both are critical.” Synapse Analytics comes with a dedicated workspace called Azure Synapse studio. Here customers can access tools for managing data, big data, AI tasks, and more. Additionally, users have the ability to manage data pipelines from data sets. “We have taken the same industry-leading data warehouse to a whole new level of performance and capabilities. Businesses can continue running their existing data warehouse workloads in production today with Azure Synapse and will automatically benefit from the new capabilities,” added Kumar. “Businesses can put their data to work much more quickly, productively, and securely, pulling together insights from all data sources, data warehouses, and big data analytics systems.”
Azure Machine Learning
At Ignite, Microsoft also announced an updated model designer and integrated programming notebooks for Python and R languages on Azure Machine Learning. Other new features landing on the service include quota, cost management, and role-based access controls. In terms of autonomous cloud systems, Microsoft revealed a collaboration with Mathworks and other companies. This partnership means Matlab and Simulink are coming to Azure Cloud. Other integrations in the pipeline include CGTech, Fresh Consulting, AnyLogic, Neal Analytics, and 3D Robotics.
Azure SQL Database Edge
Over on Azure SWL Database Edge, Microsoft has revealed the service is now available in preview. Introduced at Build earlier this year, the tool is a database engine for edge devices that does not hog resources. With Database Edge, users can access numerous Azure SQL Database and SQL Server tools on edge devices.
