Cloud Renames Contribute
RenamedData & BIAzure

Microsoft Kusto Azure Data Explorer

Legacy names Microsoft Kusto, Azure Kusto, Azure Synapse Data Explorer

Fully managed, high-performance big data analytics platform for real-time log, telemetry, and time-series data exploration using Kusto Query Language (KQL).

Open in interactive timeline ↗All Azure renamesHome

Naming timeline

  1. Microsoft Kusto

    · Internal Telemetry Engine

    Developed internally at Microsoft to power log and telemetry analytics across Azure, Application Insights, and Office 365.

  2. Azure Data ExplorerCurrent name

    · Microsoft Ignite Launch (GA Feb 7, 2019)

    Kusto engine introduced as a standalone customer-facing Azure service while preserving Kusto Query Language (KQL) and Microsoft.Kusto ARM identifiers.

What is Microsoft Kusto called now?

Microsoft Kusto is now called Azure Data Explorer, with the latest change on 24 September 2018 (Microsoft Ignite Launch (GA Feb 7, 2019)). Earlier names covered by this entry also include Azure Kusto, Azure Synapse Data Explorer. Fully managed, high-performance big data analytics platform for real-time log, telemetry, and time-series data exploration using Kusto Query Language (KQL). Only the customer-facing name changed; the underlying technical identifiers remain backward compatible.

Also known as

  • Kusto
  • Kusto Query Language (KQL)

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.Kusto/clusters Microsoft.Kusto/clusters/databases
Azure CLI (az) / PowerShellaz kusto az kusto cluster az kusto database
Entra ID / Azure RBAC RolesAzure Data Explorer Contributor Database Admin Database Viewer
Terraform Resources (azurerm_*)azurerm_kusto_cluster azurerm_kusto_database

Underlying ARM (Microsoft.Kusto/clusters), CLI (az kusto), SDK packages (azure-kusto-*), and Terraform (azurerm_kusto_*) permanently retain the legacy Kusto identifier.

Notes & disambiguation

  • Created internally at Microsoft in 2014 under the codename 'Kusto' (named after Jacques Cousteau), the service was launched publicly in preview at Microsoft Ignite in September 2018 and reached GA on February 7, 2019 as Azure Data Explorer.
  • Although the product surface is branded Azure Data Explorer (ADX), the query language is officially named Kusto Query Language (KQL), and all underlying technical identifiers retain the Kusto name—including the ARM provider (Microsoft.Kusto/clusters), Azure CLI (az kusto), and Terraform (azurerm_kusto_cluster).
  • The preview Azure Synapse Data Explorer pool integration was retired on October 7, 2025 in favor of standalone Azure Data Explorer and Eventhouse in Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence.

Sources & official documentation

Catalog last updated . Spotted an error? Suggest an edit