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zaminator
New Member

SQL Server to (Datawarehouse vs Lakehouse)

Hi,

 

I have some data in On-Prem SQL Server of around 20 GB on which I want to perform analytics. As I will use on-prem data gateway, please guide where should I bring this data to perform analytics, in Fabric Data Warehouse or Lakehouse ?

 

About Data: All this data is relational and is stored in relational tables in sql server.

 

I mean what are the best practices to handle such data in Microsoft Fabric, and What are the differences and pros and cons of moving this data into Lakehouse Delta Tables vs Fabric Data warehouse ?

 

Please guide.

3 REPLIES 3
frithjof_v
Super User
Super User

Here are my two cents (however I am a data analyst, not a data engineer, so hopefully someone with more experience can share their views also):

 

- both lakehouse and warehouse use Delta tables as the underlying storage format 

- the main difference is which language you prefer to work with (PySpark, Spark SQL, Scala, R for Lakehouse vs. T-SQL for Warehouse)

- There are some limitations to which T-SQL commands you can use

- I think I would start out with Lakehouse as it seems to offer more flexibility with regards to tooling and languages.

However if you prefer to work solely with T-SQL and the SQL experience (stored procedures, database schemas, etc.) I guess the warehouse is the natural choice. Note that there are some limitations with regards to the available T-SQL commands, because the underlying technology is Delta tables and Spark.

 

Here are some articles with more detailed information:

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/get-started/decision-guide-data-store

 

https://blog.fabric.microsoft.com/en-US/blog/lakehouse-vs-data-warehouse-deep-dive-into-use-cases-di...

 

https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/databases/sql-server/bi-sql-server/choosing-between-the-lakehou...

 

I guess I would try both options in the beginning, and then decide which one works best for your skills and requirements.

 

(Lakehouse can also be queried (read only) by using T-SQL in the SQL Analytics Endpoint. However only the Warehouse uses T-SQL for both writes and reads, create, control, etc.)

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @zaminator ,

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if your query was answered.
Otherwise, will respond back with the more details and we will try to help .

Thanks

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @zaminator ,

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if your query was answered.
Otherwise, will respond back with the more details and we will try to help .

Thanks

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