Databricks and Synapse Study Guide

 

We ran out of time in my Q&A session at the PASS Data Community Summit and I wasn't able to answer the question, "Are there any books or materials that you recommend for Databricks and Synapse?". I promised to blog the list, so here it is. 

Synapse

• Once you create an Azure Synapse Workspace, you will see a link that send you directly to the Microsoft documentation on using Synapse. The Microsoft documentation is good. It includes several tutorials and Quick Starts to help you hit the ground running. 
• Once you enter the main screen of Synapse, there's a like to "Knowledge Center", which includes code samples for exploring data with Spark, querying data with SQL and creating external tables using SQL. The Knowledge Center also has a gallery of database templates, sample datasets, sample notebooks, sample SQL scripts and sample pipelines. Definitely check it out and try a few of them. 
• 
  

Databricks

• The official Databricks Documentation has the latest and best information on everything Databricks
• If you are using Azure Databricks, be sure to refer to Microsoft's Azure Databricks documentation because that covers Databricks coding specific to Azure instances including connecting to other Azure services and using Azure's version of the Databricks interface.
• The official Apache Spark Documentation contains documentation for all versions of Spark, and has good code examples to help you determine how to use each function available in each language used in Spark. 
• Databricks Academy -yes, they have their own training, which includes Azure and AWS specific training as well as general Databricks training which is applicable to any Databricks implementation. Some is free, and some is paid. 
• Databricks offers periodic webinars. Definitely sign up for those and the Databricks "Data and AI Summit".  
• Pop on over to YouTube and look up Bryan Cafferky. He has several good videos on Databricks.

Both Synapse AND Databricks

Yes, there are a few bits of documentation which apply to both Synapse and Databricks.

• I highly recommend exploring Microsoft Learn. It has free training on everything in Azure and many of the training modules include labs which walk you through performing various activities in Azure using their Azure lab account so you don't have to pay for the experience of learning how to use certain features. 
• Pragmatic Works still offers weekly free webinars on various topics including Azure, SQL server, Power Apps and more. Sign up on their list to be notified of new content, and explore their archive of past webinars.
• If you're a fan of watching technical videos, "Advancing Analytics" has a series of YouTube videos covering Azure Synapse and another series covering Databricks. He posts new videos periodically, so keep checking back on his page.
• 3 Cloud Solutions also offers periodic free webinars on various Azure Topics. Sign up for notifications from them so you don't miss any or explore their list of past webinars.

If I find any additional resources, I'll add them later, but that's all I have for now.