We use the product for data warehouses. It helps us to load data to warehouses.
Solution Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helps us to load data to warehouses and useful for ETL processes
Pros and Cons
- "The tool's most valuable features are its connectors. It has many out-of-the-box connectors. We use ADF for ETL processes. Our main use case involves integrating data from various databases, processing it, and loading it into the target database. ADF plays a crucial role in orchestrating these ETL workflows."
- "When working with AWS, we have noticed that the difference between ADF and AWS is that AWS is more customer-focused. They're more responsive compared to any other company. ADF is not as good as AWS, but it should be. If AWS is ten out of ten, ADF is around eight out of ten. I think AWS is easier to understand from the GUI perspective compared to ADF."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The tool's most valuable features are its connectors. It has many out-of-the-box connectors. We use ADF for ETL processes. Our main use case involves integrating data from various databases, processing it, and loading it into the target database. ADF plays a crucial role in orchestrating these ETL workflows.
The tool's visual interface is good. The ADS scheduling feature impacts data management by determining when jobs must be run and setting up dependencies. This capability eliminates the need to rely on enterprise data scheduling tools.
What needs improvement?
When working with AWS, we have noticed that the difference between ADF and AWS is that AWS is more customer-focused. They're more responsive compared to any other company. ADF is not as good as AWS, but it should be. If AWS is ten out of ten, ADF is around eight out of ten. I think AWS is easier to understand from the GUI perspective compared to ADF.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for 6 months.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ADF is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The tool's deployment is easy. The deployment typically takes around two to three days to set up. However, the duration may vary depending on factors such as the number of integrated endpoints. In our company, the deployment team had three to four people. This team consisted of an IT engineer, a network engineer, and an ETL admin.
We still haven't required much maintenance since we're still in the development phase. However, as time progresses and we move into production, we'll better understand the maintenance requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ADF is cheaper compared to AWS.
What other advice do I have?
The tool has met our projects' growing data needs effectively so far. I rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Mar 21, 2024
Flag as inappropriateCIO, Director at Prosys Infotech Private Limited
Easy to deploy, good support, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data."
- "We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is to connect to various different data sets and do an EAT into our data warehouse.
What is most valuable?
We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data. The solution gives everything under one roof, which is an important feature.
What needs improvement?
We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We had a few technical calls with the Microsoft technical support team for some issues that we were facing, which they helped us resolve.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and the team is able to deploy between six and seven days.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is based on the amount of data sets that we are ingesting. The more data we ingest the more we pay.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten. We have been happy with all the customer implementations, and the customers are satisfied with the ADF pipelines. We are also currently examining the Synapse pipelines, which are likely similar.
We have six developers using the solution in our organization.
People should use the solution for two reasons. Firstly, we can switch off any data pipelines we set up to save costs. Secondly, there are several connectors available in one place, including most standard connectors.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
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Azure Data Factory
November 2024
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Practice Head, Data & Analytics at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Beneficial guides, scales well, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Azure Data Factory is the core features that help you through the whole Azure pipeline or value chain."
- "Azure Data Factory can improve the transformation features. You have to do a lot of transformation activities. This is something that is just not fully covered. Additionally, the integration could improve for other tools, such as Azure Data Catalog."
What is our primary use case?
Azure Data Factory can be deployed on the cloud and hybrid cloud. There have been very few deployments on private clouds.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Azure Data Factory is the core features that help you through the whole Azure pipeline or value chain.
Across the whole field of use, from accepting the ingestion and real-time SaaS ingestion for which we often use other components. These areas have been instrumental across the board.
What needs improvement?
Azure Data Factory can improve the transformation features. You have to do a lot of transformation activities. This is something that is just not fully covered. Additionally, the integration could improve for other tools, such as Azure Data Catalog.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Azure Data Factory is good.
I rate the scalability of Azure Data Factory a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Data Factory is scalable. The solution can move up and be aligned to resources or scaled down.
We have a lot of customers using the solution, approximately 100.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Azure Data Factory is very good. There are some improvements needed.
I rate the support from Azure Data Factory a four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Informatica. When comparing Informatica to Azure Data Factory, Informatica is a bit behind.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Azure Data Factory is not complex if you know what you are doing. If you do not know the technology you will have a problem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Data Factory gives better value for the price than other solutions such as Informatica.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others.
I rate Azure Data Factory an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Technical Manager at PalTech
Provides orchestration and data flows for transformation for integration
Pros and Cons
- "The data flows were beneficial, allowing us to perform multiple transformations."
- "When we initiated the cluster, it took some time to start the process."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for building a few warehouses using Microsoft services.
How has it helped my organization?
We worked on a project for the textile industry where we needed to build a data warehouse from scratch. We provided a solution using Azure Data Factory to pull data from multiple files containing certification information, such as CSV and JSON. This data was then stored in a SQL Server-based data warehouse. We built around 30 pipelines in Azure Data Factory, one for each table, to load the data into the warehouse. The Power BI team then used this data for their analysis.
What is most valuable?
For the integration task, we used Azure Data Factory for orchestration and data flows for transformation. The data flows were beneficial, allowing us to perform multiple transformations. Additionally, we utilized web API activities to log data from third-party API tools, which greatly assisted in loading the necessary data into our warehouse.
What needs improvement?
When we initiated the cluster, it took some time to start the process. Most of our time was spent ensuring the cluster was adequately set up. We transitioned from using the auto integration runtime to a custom integration runtime, which showed some improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When running the process server, we encountered frequent connection disconnect issues. These issues often stemmed from internal problems that we couldn’t resolve then, leading to repeated disruptions.
I rate the stability as seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
20 people are using this solution daily. I rate the scalability around eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service supported us whenever we needed it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used SQL Server.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy and takes four to five hours to complete.
What was our ROI?
They have reduced the infrastructure burden by 60 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is reasonable when compared with other cloud providers.
What other advice do I have?
We have used the Key value pair for authentication with the adoption. I can rate it around eight out of ten.
I recommend the solution.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jul 30, 2024
Flag as inappropriateDirector - Emerging Technologies at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Helps to orchestrate workflows and supports both ETL and ELT processes
Pros and Cons
- "Data Factory allows you to pull data from multiple systems, transform it according to your business needs, and load it into a data warehouse or data lake."
- "While it has a range of connectors for various systems, such as ERP systems, the support for these connectors can be lacking."
What is our primary use case?
Azure Data Factory is primarily used to orchestrate workflows and move data between various sources. It supports both ETL and ELT processes. For instance, if you have an ERP system and want to make the data available for reporting in a data lake or data warehouse, you can use Data Factory to extract data from the ERP system as well as from other sources, like CRM systems.
Data Factory allows you to pull data from multiple systems, transform it according to your business needs, and load it into a data warehouse or data lake. It also supports complex data transformations and aggregations, enabling you to generate summary and aggregate reports from the combined data. Data Factory helps you ingest data from diverse sources, perform necessary transformations, and prepare it for reporting and analysis.
How has it helped my organization?
I have extensive experience building things independently, with over twenty years of experience in SQL, ETL, and data-related projects. Recently, I have been using Azure Data Factory for the past two years. It has proven to be quite effective in handling large volumes of data and performing complex calculations. It allows for the creation of intricate data workflows and processes faster. Azure Data Factory is particularly useful for enterprise-level data integration activities, where you might deal with millions of records, such as in SAP environments. For example, SAP tables can contain tens or hundreds of millions of records. Managing and maintaining the quality of this data can be challenging, but Azure Data Factory simplifies these tasks significantly.
What is most valuable?
It is a powerful tool and is considered one of the leading solutions in the market, especially for handling large volumes of data. It is popular among large enterprises.
What needs improvement?
While it has a range of connectors for various systems, such as ERP systems, the support for these connectors can be lacking. Take the SAP connector, for example. When issues arise, it can be challenging to determine whether the problem is on Microsoft's side or SAP's side. This often requires working with both teams individually, which can lead to coordination issues and delays. It would be beneficial if Azure Data Factory provided better support and troubleshooting resources for these connectors, ensuring a smoother resolution of such issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's pretty good. There are no issues with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The support has been good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
It is straightforward to set up. However, ensuring its security requires careful configuration, which can vary depending on the organization's requirements. While the basic setup is user-friendly and doesn’t necessarily require advanced technical skills, securing the environment involves additional steps to prevent unauthorized access and ensure that data is only accessible from permitted locations. This can be more complex depending on the specific setup and organizational needs.
Setting up the infrastructure typically takes about two to three weeks and usually requires the effort of two people.
What was our ROI?
Azure Data Factory serves several important purposes. One key reason for using it is to build an enterprise data warehouse. This is crucial for centralizing data from various sources. Another reason is to gain insights from that data. By consolidating data in a unified location, you enable data scientists and engineers to analyze it and generate valuable insights.
Customers use Azure Data Factory to bring their data together, creating opportunities to understand their data better and extract actionable insights. However, simply consolidating data is not enough; the actual value comes from how you analyze and utilize it. This involves deriving insights, creating opportunities, and understanding customers better, which can significantly benefit the organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is fine. It's a pay-as-you-go option.
It is in the same price range as other major providers. However, costs can vary depending on enterprise agreements and relationships.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Last updated: Jul 30, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSenior Consultant at Veraqor
Seamless cloud-based data integration providing a versatile platform with scalable data processing, diverse data connectors, and comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect is the copy capability."
- "Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue."
What is our primary use case?
My task involves extracting data from a source, performing necessary transformations, and subsequently loading the data into a target destination, which happens to be Azure SQL Database.
How has it helped my organization?
The company is experiencing significant benefits as one of our customers is successfully implementing the solution we provide. We offer support to the customer in utilizing Azure Data Factory, and their satisfaction level is quite high.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect is the copy capability.
What needs improvement?
Implementing a standard pricing model at a more affordable rate could make it accessible to a larger number of companies. Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with it for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite satisfactory. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides impressive scalability. There are a total of eight switches currently in use. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is available for all products, and you can reach them without any hassle. They offer assistance through various channels and are proficient in addressing technical issues, ensuring the highest level of support. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past, we used Oracle Data Integrator.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup has been smooth and without any difficulties.
What about the implementation team?
Deployment time is contingent on the volume of data. If there are millions of records to process, it will understandably take a significant amount of time. Conversely, for smaller datasets, the deployment can be relatively quick, often within a matter of minutes to reach the destination. In the cloud deployment process, the initial step involves defining the instance. Subsequently, in the copy activity, we specify both the source and destination. Following this, communication with the destination takes place. This process constitutes the necessary steps for deployment, and we proceed accordingly. Due to the cloud system being provided by Microsoft, they handle the maintenance of the servers.
What was our ROI?
The routing value is quite impressive, especially considering that we successfully implemented it for one of our clients, and they expressed satisfaction. For our latest projects, we've acquired additional customers who also require this product for their setups. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While I can't specify the actual cost, I believe it is reasonably priced and comparable to similar products.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend considering this solution because, from my perspective, it is not overly expensive. The pricing seems reasonable, making it a viable option to explore. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI Technical Development Lead at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
A solution that is ideal for individuals or teams looking to extract, transform, and load data into a database
Pros and Cons
- "Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution."
- "Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution to extract, transform, and load the data into the database.
What is most valuable?
Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution.
What needs improvement?
Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory. Although the platform displays which pipelines are running, it doesn't offer a monitoring tool that allows for the sequential execution of pipelines and the ability to visualize end-to-end data flow. As such, this feature is currently missing from the platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for more than six years. Also, I am an end-user of the solution, and I initially used to work on Azure Data Factory V1. Now, I have switched to Azure Data Factory V2.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten. So, scalability can be improved. Also, there are around 150 people in my company using the solution. Moreover, we use the solution daily in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support between eight to nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I was using Informatica. My company wanted to shift to a solution that could be deployed on the cloud, so we chose Azure Data Factory.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup process was easy. On a scale where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the initial setup process an eight out of ten. The solution is deployed on the cloud.
Since multiple projects are going on in my organization, there is no uniformity in the time taken to deploy the solution in our company. However, I can say that it only takes a few days to carry out the deployment process.
Our organization has multiple project teams, so each team carries out its deployment process.
To give an average, I would consider that if there are fifty ongoing projects in our company, and if we consider a person from each project, fifty people are needed for the deployment and maintenance process.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's implementation process was done with our in-house team's help.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot comment on the pricing parts since our company's admin team handles it.
What other advice do I have?
Those who want to move to a cloud platform can choose Azure Data Factory since it is the best tool. Since certain improvements are required in the solution, I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI Development & Validation Manager at JT International SA
Well performing solution for ELTs
Pros and Cons
- "The overall performance is quite good."
- "Occasionally, there are problems within Microsoft itself that impacts the Data Factory and causes it to fail."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to perform ELTs so that we do not need to keep code within a database.
What is most valuable?
The overall performance is quite good.
What needs improvement?
Occasionally, there are problems within Microsoft itself that impact the Data Factory and cause it to fail.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've worked with this solution for two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I wouldn't consider it to be stable since it fails at times.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Support is quite slow and they have bugs that they are unaware of and claim that that is how the system is supposed to work.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company used Informatica PowerCenter in the past but I was not involved in that.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quick and easy. The whole process took about fifteen minutes. We have about a hundred users at the moment and have plans to increase.
What about the implementation team?
Two of our in-house developers were able to complete the setup.
What other advice do I have?
This solution has good performance but could use better stability. I would rate this a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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