Loading data into Synapse-dedicated SQL pools

With a rich pedigree established by the Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse appliance, which was the grandfather of Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Synapse-dedicated SQL pools benefit from a mature massively parallel processing (MPP) technology that implements some very useful pieces of technology.

For example, there is PolyBase, which will enable your dedicated SQL pool to either load data from your data lake into the SQL pool or query the data from where it is stored in your data lake without the need to transport it into the pool.

Another option is to use the COPY statement. This SQL feature was added to speed up loading data from your data lake into your SQL pool.

The third option for bringing data into your dedicated SQL pool is, of course, to use either Synapse pipelines or Azure Data Factory (see Chapter 5, Integrating Data in Your Modern Data Warehouse).

Examining PolyBase

PolyBase is a feature that allows the reading and...