Azure Synapse vs Presto: What are the differences?

Introduction

Azure Synapse and Presto are both popular tools used in the field of big data analytics. Both tools provide powerful capabilities for processing and querying large datasets. However, there are several key differences between Azure Synapse and Presto that set them apart from each other. In this article, we will highlight the main differences between these two tools.

1. Integration with Azure Ecosystem: Azure Synapse is a fully managed analytics service provided by Microsoft Azure, which allows seamless integration with other Azure services such as Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Blob Storage, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse. On the other hand, Presto is an open-source distributed SQL query engine that can be integrated with various data sources including Hadoop, Kafka, and Amazon S3.

2. Data Processing Architecture: Azure Synapse leverages the concept of a distributed processing engine known as Apache Spark, which allows it to perform distributed processing of large datasets. Presto, on the other hand, utilizes a distributed SQL query engine that is optimized for low latency interactive queries. This difference in architecture impacts the performance characteristics of each tool and the types of workloads they are best suited for.

3. Scalability and Performance: Azure Synapse provides automatic scaling capabilities that allow it to handle workloads of any size, making it highly scalable. It also provides built-in connectors that enable fast data ingestion and processing. Presto, on the other hand, is designed to scale horizontally by adding more compute nodes to the cluster. It provides high query performance for interactive queries but may require manual tuning for optimal performance.

4. Security and Governance: Azure Synapse provides robust security features such as encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, and transparent data encryption. It also integrates with Azure Active Directory for user authentication and authorization. Presto, while it does support authentication and authorization, may require additional setup and configuration for security features.

5. Cost: Azure Synapse follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where users only pay for the resources they use. It offers a range of pricing tiers to cater to different workload requirements. Presto, being an open-source tool, does not have any licensing costs. However, users need to manage the infrastructure and compute resources themselves, which may incur additional costs.

6. Supported SQL Dialect: Azure Synapse supports T-SQL (Transact-SQL), which is a dialect of SQL developed by Microsoft. This makes it easier for users already familiar with Microsoft SQL Server to transition to Azure Synapse. Presto, on the other hand, supports ANSI SQL, which is a standard SQL dialect widely used in the industry. This allows greater portability of queries across different systems.

In Summary, Azure Synapse and Presto differ in their integration with the Azure ecosystem, data processing architecture, scalability, performance, security, governance, cost, and supported SQL dialects. The choice between these two tools depends on specific requirements and the existing infrastructure and expertise of the organization.