Azure Modern Data Warehouse/Platform Services
Today’s organisations generate massive volumes of data from applications, devices, sensors, customer systems, and transactions. But to turn that data into competitive advantage, you need an analytics-ready platform that is for modern workloads.
Antares designs and delivers Azure Modern Data Warehouses that integrate data from every part of your organisation, enabling real-time insights and advanced analytics at scale.
The Challenge: Traditional Data Warehouses Can’t Keep Up
Most legacy or on premise data environments struggle with modern requirements:
- Inability to process large volumes of multi-format data
- Slow batch reporting and outdated insights
- Expensive infrastructure and manual maintenance
- Siloed data sources that cannot be quried together
- Difficulty supporting IoT, ML or real-time analytics
- Limited scalability as data grows
- Slow performnce under heavy workloads
These limitations make it difficult for organisations to innovate, forecast accurately, or respond to market changes.
Why Modern Data Warehouses Matter
A modern cloud based data warehouse provides
Unlimited scalability to handle Big Data and IoT streams
Fast query performance via Massively Parallel Processing (MPP)
Real-time insights instead of slow batch reporting
Support for all data formats – structures, semistructured or unstructured
A central source of truth accessible across the organisation
Lower upfront costs with cloud elasticity
End-to-End Data Management Done right
Data warehouses perform a variety of functions from storing data to maintaining it to ensuring it’s optimised for analysis.
-
Discovery & Architecture Planning
We begin by understanding your goals, data landscape, and reporting needs. This lets us define the right warehouse architecture and ensure the solution supports your analytics, forecasting, and operational requirements.
-
Data Integration and Ingesstion Pipeline Design
We design automated pipelines using Azure Data Factory, Synapse, and Databricks to pull data from CRMs, ERPs, apps, files and IoT sources. All data is unified, cleaned and prepared for analytics.
-
Build Your Azure Modern Data Warehouse
We implement a scalable warehouse using Synapse, Data Lake, Databricks, and Power BI/Analysis Services. Your platform handles structured and unstructured data with high performance and secure storage.
-
Implement Data Models, Marts and ODS layers
We build the layers your organisation needs – EDW, ODS and department-specific data marts. Each model is structured to support fast reporting, cross-functional insights and governed access.
-
Cloud Migration or hybrid Architecture
Whether you move fully to Azure, migrate from on-prem or adopt hybrid, we design an environment that meets your security, compliance and performance needs while minimising business disruption.
-
Governance, Security and User Enablement
We first establish role-based access, data standards and quality controls – then train your teams to confidently use the new platform.
Choosing Where to Store Your Data Warehouse
With data growing at an astonishing rate, data warehouses have grown to become a critical necessity to the modern organisation. However, should your data warehouse be stored on-premise, in the cloud or on a combination of both to best serve your needs? The answer isn’t a simple this or that. Instead, you should be considering multiple aspects of your organisation such as your data security, data volume, support required, control and scalability. Each comes with its own benefits and drawbacks, so be sure to weigh them against your organisation’s requirements before deciding.
On-premise
An on-premise data warehouse, as the name suggests, involves data being collected, stored and managed on-site at your organisation. Whilst this gives your organisation complete control and visibility into your data, it also requires a pretty hefty upfront front. You’ll be responsible for purchasing all of the hardware that is required as well as having to put together and train a team of staff to manage the servers. On-premise data warehouses are a more expensive option in managing your organisational data but you may choose to use this option if you want greater compliance and security. Scaling up your on-premise data warehouse is also much more difficult and time-consuming as it consists of purchasing additional hardware and installing them.
Whilst the cloud does offer tight data security, many organisations find it safer to store sensitive information on site to reduce chances of data leakage. Data governance and regulatory compliance are also easier to obtain with on-site data warehouses as you have complete transparency in where your data is located and making sure it adheres to company policies. On-premise data warehouses usually offer faster access to key information than cloud-based ones as they aren’t susceptible to network latency and potential wait times for server responses.
Cloud
Cloud-based data warehouses are often seen as a more attractive option for storing and collecting data due to their cost effectiveness and flexibility. With cloud-based data warehouses, there are minimal upfront and long-term costs as the model offers an on-demand pricing where you only pay for what you use. This gives your organisation on demand scalability and flexibility with the advantage of accessing a data warehouse solution at a low entry cost. You can scale your data up or down instantly with minimal hassle and associated costs. Aside from the cost benefits, the cloud also offers integration with other cloud services that can process multiple forms of data including semi-structured and unstructured data that on-premise warehouses are traditionally unable to. If your organisation has offices in different geographies, cloud data warehouses can also simultaneously process and serve data streams entering from disparate locations.
However, cloud data warehouses also come with their own set of drawbacks. As the cloud is operated by a third-party service, there are increasing concerns in regard to sensitive business information being exposed to risks with data being stored remotely and managed by an external party. The repercussions can be severe if the cloud’s security is breached by cyber attacks and the sensitive information to be stolen. As such, it is recommended that organisations operating with individuals’ confidential information such as banks and the government to keep their data stored on premise rather than on the cloud.
Hybrid cloud data warehouse architecture
By using a mix of the two forms of data warehouses, you’ll be enjoying the best of both worlds. By choosing to store both sensitive and frequently accessed information on premise, you’ll be able to ensure complete control over the data’s security and increase the speed of access. For organisations looking to work in an agile and fast paced manner, a hybrid data warehouse architecture meets the needs of scalability, flexibility and cost effectiveness that comes with unpredictable demands. You’ll be able to access data from both data warehouses and enable applications from both sources to be integrated for accelerated business analytics.
Modern Data Warehousing Options
Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS is a form of cloud computing that requires the provider to manage all the hardware and infrastructure whilst you purchase and configure the software. This model enables organisations to cut costs and enjoy the flexibility required to accommodate changing demands in data.
Platform as a Service
Just like IaaS, PaaS uses a pay as you go model whereby organisations are able to access data warehouse services via an internet connection. The service provider delivers a complete platform for developers to create custom software and hosts everything – servers, storage, hardware – whilst the customer is responsible for managing their own data and applications. This option is perfect for organisations looking to develop software unique to their own needs without shelling out grand amounts and undertaking the heavy lifting.
Software as a Service
The SaaS model allows organisations to access a complete software solution via an internet connection. The cloud provider is responsible for the maintenance of all the underlying infrastructure, hardware, software, data, and applications. Organisations are able to get up and running quickly with this model with minimal upfront costs or effort.
Why Antares?
Not sure where to start with your modern data warehouse journey? Antares offers a host of Microsoft cloud services and can help you determine the right architecture and data model that can help you achieve your organisational goals. As a Microsoft Solution Partner, we have the experience in delivering modern data warehouses that meet your needs, enable you to perform data driven decisions, and improve your processes.