Using PolyBase to load data

There are multiple ways to add data to a Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool. The recommended way that provides the best performance is by using PolyBase. PolyBase is a feature that enables you to write T-SQL queries in Synapse to query data that is stored in databases other than your Synapse SQL pool. There are multiple databases that PolyBase can read data from, but the most obvious one is reading data from a data lake. In Azure, we implement data lakes in Azure Storage. You will learn about that in Chapter 10, Designing and Implementing a Data Lake Using Azure Storage. For now, we will start by uploading data to the data lake account you created in the Provisioning a Synapse Analytics workspace section:

1. In the Azure portal, open the menu of the portal on the left-hand side of the screen and click on Resource groups.
2. Click on the resource group you created for this book (DesignDatabases if you followed the steps as described in the book).
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