Microsoft Fabric is a comprehensive analytics platform across industries and organizations of varied sizes for their business planning and decisions. But, when it comes to data and analytics, Microsoft offers two platforms Microsoft Fabric and Azure Synapse. Both have a unique architecture and capabilities ranging from data engineering to predictive data analytics. Let us see a few comparisons about Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse to get more detailed understanding.
Operating as a PaaS, Synapse has versatile capabilities for large analytics workloads. On the other hand, Microsoft Fabric is a comprehensive Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for data engineering, data lakes, data integration, business intelligence and analytics needs. It is like a toolbox for the data teams in every organization. It has all the capabilities to collect, store, transform and analyze data for all the key decisions.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – Architecture
Fabric offers more comprehensive storage and computation beyond the Synapse Pools. It adopts a fully managed storage layer, OneLake, and the end user can just tap into the Fabric resources for permissions and no more hassle for permissions to the storage layer. The compute resources are also broken down to serverless endpoints with each endpoint directing to a Warehouse or a Lakehouse. This offers a better option for scaling and at times isolation of workloads as per organizational needs. Fabric also seamlessly integrates with Azure and also can be used as a standalone. The new features in Fabric will enable robust options with Power BI.
Azure Synapse tightly integrates with Azure and connects with Azure Data Lake, Power BI, and Azure ML. Synapse leverages SQL Pools, a unique concept for storage. You will need the relevant permissions to access or modify the underlying data.
Fabric offers a sandbox feel, and more management is already done for you as it is a SaaS solution.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – Data Storage
Synapse uses dedicated SQL Pools as the main warehousing engine. This is a proprietary Microsoft storage and if you need to access the storage you need to run the dedicated SQL pools.
Fabric on the other hand leverages open source Delta Lake parquet format. This offers way better highlights than the local parquet arranges like cloning, and time travel. All the underlying table storage will be saved as Delta and you can query the data without running any dedicated resource engines.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – Scalability
Fabric’s performance model is built around ‘capacities’. As per your needs, you can provision different memory and compute capacities and then assign according to workloads. It’s simpler to scale the workloads in Fabric but you may miss stricter controls as in Synapse. This also depends on the administrators’ knowledge and their expertise in optimizing the solutions.
Synapse leverages massive parallel processing for query processing and also has on-demand provisioning for resources with a unique ability to pause them. It has also the ability to run Spark, and pipelines with their unique scalability options. Users need to have in-depth knowledge of these engines to optimize the usage and performance.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – Security
Azure’s active directory, access control and data encryption stays intact for Synapse. It also supports industry compliance requirements like HIPAA, GDPR, and other standards.
Fabric also has the same security standards as it also integrates with Azure. But at the same time security management is simplified in Fabric. There are a few minor lags like creating your own key for security encryption. But Fabric is evolving rapidly, we may see more capabilities in future.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – Data capabilities
Fabric has different interfaces that best suit the workloads. Users can use from the options like Power BI, data engineering, data science, data factory and advanced analytics. Most significantly each workload comes with a different UI to make it more simpler and easier. And another important feature that helps in Fabric is the Query designer which makes it easier for creating queries.
Synapse workspace facilitates SQL queries, and a lot more. But all these experiences are mixed in the user screen which makes it tough for new users and overwhelming for many experienced users as well.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – The cost imperative
Microsoft Fabric leverages usage based pricing. Organizations can define the pricing as per their data projects scope and the analytics that they would prefer for their needs. It is very flexible to meet varied demands like advanced analytics models, large data processing or simple data storage needs. Microsoft Fabric ensures you to get powerful and varied data tools to meet every organization’s needs at the best price.
Synapse pricing involves differentiated factors, the dedicated SQL Pools, data warehousing, cluster, and the computation. All in all it is tough to estimate the cost to leverage it for data needs and forecast it for future data exploration.
Microsoft Fabric vs. Azure Synapse – The Data sharing
Data sharing is more transparent in Fabric. The shortcuts concept in Fabric helps you to share the datasets to the same or other trusted Fabric tenants. The initial user pays for the storage and the users using the data can pay for the computation.
Synapse supports simpler collaboration within the same workspace. If you have to share outside it, there is a complex process to export the data from underlying SQL pools and provide access to the same.
Overall to say, both Synapse and Fabric have unique features that can fit into different organizations’ needs. Choice between them is always dependent on your needs.
What else do we have in Microsoft Fabric?
It has the new Gen AI features in Power BI and comes with integration with CoPilot too. This makes the process of data management, transformation, analysis and visualization more easier and handling complex datasets also becomes simpler. The Direct Lake Mode also offers a better approach to handle large and complex data sets in Power BI. This also enhances the data management and the speed to derive insights from datasets. Most importantly, Fabric offers industry solutions to cater to different needs across businesses.
Conclusion
If you are already in the Azure stack and looking for a robust platform for big data sets, then Synapse may be the option. And if you are looking for SaaS options and better management of the solutions, then Fabric may be the right fit. But the assessment is key as you opt for the solution. Get in touch with our team for any of the Synapse and Fabric assessments.