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Azure SQL Data Warehouse Azure Synapse Analytics

Enterprise analytics service unifying MPP SQL data warehousing, serverless lake querying, Apache Spark big data processing, and data integration pipelines.

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Naming timeline

  1. Azure SQL Data Warehouse

    · General Availability

    Cloud-based MPP relational data warehouse built on Microsoft SQL Server technology.

  2. Azure Synapse AnalyticsCurrent name

    · Microsoft Ignite Rebrand & Expansion (GA Dec 3, 2020)

    Azure SQL Data Warehouse rebranded to Azure Synapse Analytics, uniting dedicated SQL pools, serverless SQL pools, and Apache Spark pools in Synapse Studio.

What is Azure SQL Data Warehouse called now?

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is now called Azure Synapse Analytics, with the latest change on 4 November 2019 (Microsoft Ignite Rebrand & Expansion (GA Dec 3, 2020)). Enterprise analytics service unifying MPP SQL data warehousing, serverless lake querying, Apache Spark big data processing, and data integration pipelines. Only the customer-facing name changed; the underlying technical identifiers remain backward compatible.

Also known as

  • Dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW)
  • Synapse SQL
  • Azure SQL DW

Technical identifiers

Technical identifiers unchanged. Only the customer-facing product name changed; the APIs, CLI commands, IAM roles and Terraform resources below keep their legacy identifiers for backward compatibility.

ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*)Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces/sqlPools Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases
Azure CLI (az) / PowerShellaz synapse az sql dw
Entra ID / Azure RBAC RolesSynapse Administrator Synapse SQL Administrator SQL DB Contributor
Terraform Resources (azurerm_*)azurerm_synapse_workspace azurerm_synapse_sql_pool azurerm_mssql_database

Both Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces and standalone dedicated SQL pools on Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases remain active and supported.

Notes & disambiguation

  • Launched in public preview in 2015 (GA July 2016) as Azure SQL Data Warehouse, the service was rebranded and expanded into Azure Synapse Analytics at Microsoft Ignite on November 4, 2019 (reaching GA on December 3, 2020).
  • Within Azure Synapse Analytics, the original provisioned MPP data warehouse capability is named 'dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW)'.
  • Standalone dedicated SQL pools continue to use the Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases ARM resource type (with edition 'DataWarehouse') and azurerm_mssql_database / azurerm_sql_data_warehouse, while unified Synapse workspaces use Microsoft.Synapse/workspaces, az synapse, and azurerm_synapse_workspace.

Sources & official documentation

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