Post by Henrik Gütle, General Manager, Microsoft Azure
About five years ago, as enterprises were transitioning to the cloud on mass to reap the benefits of flexible, large-scale computing and data storage, the Microsoft Azure team noticed a trend: While troves of information were collected through the cloud, the systems in which data could be retrieved and analyzed for actionable insights were often only available through individual products and services, ones that weren’t necessarily designed to connect with another. Microsoft released a preview of Azure Synapse Analytics at Ignite 2019 to address exactly this – a limitless analytics service bringing together enterprise data warehousing and big data analytics allowing organizations to better analyze, prepare and manage data for immediate business intelligence and machine learning needs.
The goal? To help customers collect and analyze all of their increasingly diverse data, break down data silos and work more collaboratively. Today, Microsoft announced that the latest version of Azure Synapse is now generally available. Microsoft also unveiled Azure Purview, a new data governance solution.
Harnessing the power of Azure Synapse for improved data and analytics
As more Canadian companies realize the value of the cloud, they are also beginning to see the great potential data has to power customer service, innovation and efficiency. This includes Quorum Information Technologies Inc., a Calgary-based Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in software and services for automotive dealerships, who recently announced their plan to transition one of their most successful products, Q Analytics, to Azure Synapse in early 2021.
“Transitioning to Azure Synapse is the next logical step in increasing the value and scaling the adoption of our Q Analytics platform,” said Maury Marks, President and CEO, Quorum Information Technologies Inc. “Leveraging this solution will allow us to consolidate data from across dealerships, enabling us to provide better services for customers including improved analytics, elevated insights to inform operations and consolidated datasets for future AI projects.”
On a larger scale, global automotive supplier Magna International is also using Azure Synapse in one of its departments to create a centralized data environment, leveraging the platforms deep data analytics to realize increased cost savings and operational efficiencies.
“Our teams are realizing the powerful benefits of a combined data lake and data warehouse,” said Mark Freundl, Director of Global Data Analytics at Magna Exteriors. “Our ability to easily combine data pipeline tools into one simple environment makes the Azure Synapse solution very powerful.”
Azure Purview now available in public preview
As customers were previewing Azure Synapse over the last year, Microsoft engineers were busy developing a new data governance service to automate the discovery and cataloging of all data, whether on-premise, multi-cloud or software as a service (SaaS) locations. Azure Purview, now available in public preview, will initially enable customers to understand exactly what data they have, manage its compliance with privacy regulations and derive valuable insights more quickly.
The goal is to continue breaking down silos across organizations by providing them with secure and efficient solutions like Azure Synapse and Azure Purview to harness the full power of data and analytics. In addition, we’re also committed to helping Canadian companies scale their infrastructure with the recent launch of Azure Availability Zones in our Canada Central region and added additional capabilities in our Canada East region to better support mission-critical workloads. I look forward to working with our customers to leverage these platforms to better analyze past outcomes and prepare for the future by being more agile in their operations and resilient in times of disruption.
