Learning about delta caching

Delta caching is an optimization technique that helps speed up queries by storing the data in the cluster node's local storage. The delta cache stores local copies of data that resides in remote locations such as Azure Data Lake or Azure Blob Storage. It improves the performance of a wide range of queries but cannot store the results of arbitrary subqueries.

Once delta caching has been enabled, any data that is fetched from an external location is automatically added to the cache. This process does not require action. To preload data into the delta cache, the CACHE command can be used. Any changes that have been made to the data persisted in the delta cache are automatically detected by the delta cache. The easiest way to use delta caching is to provision a cluster with Standard_L series worker types (Delta Cache Accelerated).

Now, we will go through a worked-out example with delta caching. To begin with, we will provide a new cluster with the...