2 Why a data platform and not just a data warehouse

We’ve covered what a data platform is (as a reminder, it is “a cloud-native platform capable of cost-effectively ingesting, integrating, transforming, and managing an almost unlimited amount of data of any type data in order to facilitate analytics outcomes”), what drives the need for a data platform, and how changes in data will shape your data platform. Now we will explore in more detail why a cloud data platform provides more capabilities as opposed to a data warehouse–only architecture. In this chapter, we will equip you with the knowledge necessary to make a solid argument for a data platform and will walk you through several examples demonstrating the difference between the two approaches (data warehouse–only and data platform).

2.1 Cloud data platforms and cloud data warehouses: The practical aspects

2.1.1 A closer look at the data sources

2.1.2 An example cloud data warehouse–only architecture

2.1.3 An example cloud data platform architecture

2.2 Ingesting data

2.2.1 Ingesting data directly into Azure Synapse

2.2.2 Ingesting data into an Azure data platform

2.2.3 Managing changes in upstream data sources

2.3 Processing data

2.3.1 Processing data in the warehouse

2.3.2 Processing data in the data platform

2.4 Accessing data

2.5 Cloud cost considerations

Summary

2.6 Exercise answers