With End of Support for Microsoft’s most popular SQL Server 2008, moving to Azure is the obvious next step. While many businesses have started realizing the benefits of moving to cloud in terms of better security and cost-effectiveness, the real potential of moving to Azure lies in the ability to utilize built-in technologies such as AI, Machine Learning and analytics. Migrating to Azure is indeed the right way forward, but the next step is to gain endless opportunities to optimize business processes and drive business growth with this platform.

Traditionally, extracting meaningful information out of the Big Data require multiple tools for SQL workloads, machine learning, and deployment, creating a disconnected environment for data analysis.

Azure Databricks precisely addresses the three V's of Big Data – Variety, Volume and Velocity by creating an integrated environment where users can create complex workflows, ingest different forms and shapes of data, and gain actionable insights on improving business performance.

What is Azure Databricks?

Azure Databricks is a powerful analytics engine that runs on Apache Spark platform and is optimized specifically for the Azure cloud service platform. This engine is capable of processing large scale data and developing, training and deploying machine learning models on that data. It essentially streamlines workflows and enables businesses to accelerate innovation by allowing analysis and interpretation of data in a productive and insightful way.

With an interactive workspace, even business analysts with limited technical knowledge can collaborate with data engineers and data scientists to leverage the power of data through analytics in a safe and secure cloud environment.

Benefits of Utilizing Azure Databricks

For businesses, Azure Databricks offers a multitude of benefits and eliminates the need to worry about source control or monitoring computing performance. Some of the key advantages can come in the form of;

Better Collaboration and Productivity

Azure Databricks provides data engineers and data scientists with tools that can foster productivity. The Notebooks, for example, is similar to a multi-editable document that can be accessed by anyone based on individual access level. This means better collaboration between engineers, data scientists, and business users while working with the data, without compromising on the security.

Higher Performance and Cost Efficiency

One of the key areas where Azure Databricks shines is in offering a superior level of performance in computations. It essentially takes the entire pain of managing clusters away. Teams can deploy clusters directly from within Databricks and can be auto-scaled and auto-terminated to reduce cost without compromising the performance.

Native Integration with Azure Services 

What makes Databricks best is its complete integration with Azure. This means all Azure services can be accessed to achieve the best, cheapest and fastest results. For example, it is possible to use Azure Machine Learning to develop, train and deploy models for effective data analysis. Users can also integrate Azure Storage and Azure Data Lake services that provide caching and optimized analysis over existing data. Connecting Databricks clusters with Power BI is another way to query data at a massive scale and get real-time results.

Azure Databricks streamlines complex workflows and brings even the people with limited technical knowledge to collaborate and unlock hidden insights through intelligent data exploration. With powerful features and deep integration with Azure, Databricks provides businesses that have migrated to Azure with growth opportunities through advanced analytics.

If you’re finding Azure Databricks interesting and want to know what more it can do for your business, Just Analytics can help you. Having developed multiple analytics solutions for the Azure platform, we provide consulting and advisory to clients and help them achieve their analytical goals and objectives. Get in touch with us today!