Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Dell ObjectScale and Integrated Systems for Data Analytics using Microsoft Azure HCI and SQL 2022 > Use case 0: Data virtualization
This use case discusses the process of connecting to object storage using PolyBase feature, which facilitates data virtualization.
Microsoft added object storage access to the existing PolyBase features in SQL Server 2022. This allows the use of data virtualization to take full advantage of the benefits of object storage. This introduction allows for a SQL Server instance to directly query data from SQL Server and outside data sources. It even permits T-SQL to combine local and external data. This feature is not enabled by default, and it must be installed and enabled on the server instance to be used.
To access an external data source, an encryption key is used to verify that communication between the external data source and the SQL Server instance is secure. Dell ObjectScale is used as the external data source in this example. Use the following procedure: