Create and query a dedicated SQL pool in Azure using SSMS

Azure Synapse Dedicated SQL Pool (previously Azure SQL Data Warehouse), is a massively parallel processing database similar to other columnar-based, scale-out database technologies such as Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, and Google BigQuery.

Dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW) stores data in relational tables with columnar storage. This format significantly reduces the data storage costs, and improves query performance. Once data is stored, you can run analytics at massive scale. Compared to traditional database systems, analysis queries finish in seconds instead of minutes, or hours instead of days. 

The analysis results can go to worldwide reporting databases or applications. Business analysts can then gain insights to make well-informed business decisions.

Azure Synapse Analytics is an analytics service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. Dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW) refers to the enterprise data warehousing features that are available in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW) represents a collection of analytic resources that are provisioned when using Synapse SQL. The size of a dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW) is determined by Data Warehousing Units (DWU).

Once your dedicated SQL pool is created, you can import big data with simple PolyBase T-SQL queries, and then use the power of the distributed query engine to run high-performance analytics. As you integrate and analyze the data, dedicated SQL pool (formerly SQL DW) will become the single version of truth your business can count on for faster and more robust insights.