Summary: Azure Synapse Analytics breaks down data silos by providing a unified analytics service that allows users to query data across relational databases, non-relational stores, and data lakes. Using Synapse Link and the serverless SQL pool, developers can write a single T-SQL query that joins data from Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Lake Storage, and SQL pools seamlessly.

Direct Answer: Analyzing data that is spread across different formats is traditionally a slow process involving complex ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines. A data analyst wanting to correlate real-time website logs (NoSQL) with customer transaction records (SQL) would typically have to wait for engineers to move all the data into a central warehouse. This latency prevents real-time decision-making.

Azure Synapse Analytics eliminates these barriers with its hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) capabilities. Through Azure Synapse Link, data from operational databases like Cosmos DB is continuously replicated to an analytical store. The Synapse SQL engine can then query this data alongside files in the data lake without moving it.

This capability creates a logical data warehouse that spans the entire estate. Analysts can use their existing SQL skills to explore data wherever it lives. Azure Synapse Analytics provides a frictionless path to insight, enabling organizations to analyze their business in real time without the overhead of data movement.

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