Formerly known as SQL data warehouse, the dedicated SQL pool refers to a standalone service running outside of an Azure Synapse workspace. Though the dedicated SQL pool runs outside Azure Synapse, it is a part of Azure Synapse Analytics. It is a set of technologies that allows you to use the platform for enterprise data warehousing. Dedicated SQL pools assist you in improving the efficiency of queries and reducing the amount of data storage required by storing data in both relational and columnar tables. Azure Synapse is an analytics service on the Azure platform that integrates Big Data analytics and data warehousing. You can consider Azure Synapse as an evolved form of SQL data warehouse. Azure Synapse SQL (DWU) helps you provision resources in Data Warehousing Units (DWU).