Vishnu Derkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Big Data Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
Easy to learn, simple to use, and has a nice user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "We haven't had any issues connecting it to other products."
  • "I have not found any real shortcomings within the product."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution in a data engineering context for bringing data from source to sink.

What is most valuable?

The solution is very comfortable to use. I'm happy with the user interface and dashboards. I'm pretty happy with everything about the solution. 

We haven't had any issues connecting it to other products.

It's a stable product. 

What needs improvement?

I have not found any real shortcomings within the product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for the past year. 

Buyer's Guide
Azure Data Factory
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Azure Data Factory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product has been very stable and reliable. I'd rate the stability nine out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There is a team of 30 people working on the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

I've connected with technical support a few times. 

They sent a support engineer or a field engineer to us, and he helped us out. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not sure about the exact cost of the solution. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm a customer and end-user.

Our company chose to use this solution based on the fact that it is a Microsoft product. We're using a lot of solutions, including Outlook and Teams. We also use Power BI. We try to use Microsoft so that everything is under one umbrella. That way, there is no difficulty with connecting anything. 

It's a good solution to use. There are lots of videos available on YouTube, and it is very easy to learn. It's very easy to perform things on it as well, which is one thing that a product like ThoughtSpot lacks. There is no training needed like Power BI. 

I'd rate the solution 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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PRESIDENT at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Flexible, responsive support, and good integration
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Azure Data Factory are the flexibility, ability to move data at scale, and the integrations with different Azure components."
  • "Azure Data Factory can improve by having support in the drivers for change data capture."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Data Factory to connect to clients' on-premise networks and data sources to bring the data into Azure. Additionally, Azure Data Factory orchestrates data movement and transformations. It can connect to a number of different cloud data sources to bring the information into something, such as a data lake or a formal SQL database. Azure Data Factory has the ability to handle large data workloads and can orchestrate them well.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Azure Data Factory are the flexibility, ability to move data at scale, and the integrations with different Azure components.

What needs improvement?

Azure Data Factory can improve by having support in the drivers for change data capture.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Data Factory for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Data Factory is a very reliable and stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is highly scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is very good, they are responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously use Attunity and we switch to Azure Data Factory mainly because of cost reasons and integration.

The biggest difference between Azure Data Factory and Attunity is Attunitys has the ability to perform change data capture. Whereas Azure Data Factory is more centered around batch or bulk loads.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is of a moderate level of difficulty. However, it can be complex. The solution is able to fit both of our use cases.

What about the implementation team?

We normally use one or two people to update and maintain Azure Data Factory.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There's no licensing for Azure Data Factory, they have a consumption payment model. How often you are running the service and how long that service takes to run. The price can be approximately $500 to $1,000 per month but depends on the scaling.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others that want to implement Azure Data Factory is to use a metadata approach.

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
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Azure Data Factory
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Azure Data Factory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Data engineer at Target
Real User
Reliable and scalable but setup is complex
Pros and Cons
  • "Allows more data between on-premises and cloud solutions"
  • "Some of the optimization techniques are not scalable."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use cases for this solution are integration and connecting to the different data stores where we get data and migration activity, deployment, and integrations into using linked services and deployment models.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has allowed me to quickly get analysis, sales data, supply chain data, and eCommerce data.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is that it allows more data between on-premises and cloud solutions. It's also useful for orchestration for complex data flows and allows us to do ETL-based transitions heavily. In addition, it allows us to integrate with other third-party systems and compare features and pricing. Other valuable features include database replication, SQL service products, SLA support, data sharing, vendor lock-in, and support for developer tools.

What needs improvement?

Areas for improvement would be the product's performance and its mapping of data flow. In addition, some of the optimization techniques are not scalable, some naming connections are not supported, and automated testing is not supported in all cases. In the next release, I would like to see support so we can enhance based on the next-level pipelines, writing from scratch, flexible scheduling, and pipeline activity.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is very reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I am satisfied with the technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously worked with Azure SQL database.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex, but the deployment only took 30 to 40 minutes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This product is priced at the market standard, which is good given that the product contains all the available assets.

What other advice do I have?

When selecting services, make sure to choose only those you need in order to reduce your costs. I would rate this solution as seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Reasonably priced, scales well, good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution can scale very easily."
  • "My only problem is the seamless connectivity with various other databases, for example, SAP."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case is getting data from the sensors.

The sensors are installed on the various equipment across the plant, and this sensor gives us a huge amount of data. Some are captured on a millisecond basis.

What we are able to do is the data into Azure Data Factory, and it has allowed us to scale up well. We are able to utilize that data for our predictive maintenance of the assets of the equipment, as well as the prediction of the breakdown. Specifically, we use the data to look at predictions for future possible breakdowns. At least, that is what we are looking to build towards.

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped us to take care of a lot of our analytics requirements. We are running a few analytics models on Data Factory, which is very helpful.

What is most valuable?

The overall architecture has been very valuable to us. It has allowed us to scale up pretty rapidly. That's something that has been very good for us. 

The solution can scale very easily.

The stability is very good and has improved very much over time.

What needs improvement?

My only problem is the seamless connectivity with various other databases, for example, SAP. Our transaction data there, all the maintenance data, is maintained in SAP. That seamless connectivity is not there. 

Basically, it could have some specific APIs that allow it to connect to the traditional ERP systems. That'll make it more powerful. With Oracle, it's pretty good at this already. However, when it comes to SAP, SAP has its native applications, which are the way it is written. It's very much AWS with SAP Cloud, so when it comes to Azure, it's difficult to fetch data from SAP.

The initial setup is a bit complex. It's likely a company may need to enlist assistance.

Technical support is lacking in terms of responsiveness.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution roughly for about a year and a half.

It hasn't been an extremely long amount of time. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From a security perspective, the product has come up a long way.

With the Azure Cloud Platform, in 2015, I was in a different organization and it was not reliable at all. It has become much more reliable since then and is very stable at the moment. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is pretty easy to scale on Azure. I have found it to be very efficient and it is pretty fast. You just need to get the order done properly, and then you will be able to scale up.

We have about five to seven people using it at this time.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support isn't the best, as it's a bit delayed at times.

Whenever we need some urgent support, wherein we have to restart or something has stuck, it takes a bit of time. Some improvements can be made in the customer support area.

In summary, we are not completely satisfied with the support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not straightforward. It's a bit complex. A company may need to hire someone to assist them with the process.

The solution's deployment took about eight weeks.

What about the implementation team?

I had to hire technical experts who could help us in the process. We could not handle the implementation ourselves.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cost-wise, it is quite affordable. It's not a factor in the decision-making process when it comes to whether or not we should use it. That said, the pricing is very reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated both Oracle and SAP before choosing Azure Data Factory.

What other advice do I have?

We are customers and end-users.

I'd advise companies considering the solution that they need to be very clear about the use case they are trying to address. They need to understand the data ecosystem that they have and what percentage of data is coming in from the various ERP systems.

Do that study properly and then come up with the right solution. If, for example, it is that the underlying data that they want to analyze is more than 60% residing in SAP, then probably Azure would not be the right platform to move ahead with.

We're mostly satisfied with the product. However, getting it connected to closed ERP systems like SAP would make it more powerful.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Joaquin Marques - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO - Founder / Principal Data Scientist / Principal AI Architect at Kanayma LLC
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Provides great consistency that has made implementations less buggy and less complex
Pros and Cons
  • "The function of the solution is great."
  • "Lacks a decent UI that would give us a view of the kinds of requests that come in."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to quickly instantiate certain components in Azure with the aim of having consistent use of certain components and objects. It provides one point of reference rather than having the need to replicate points of references, and then having to keep them in sync. 

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped our company by providing consistency. For example, by making sure that the way certain objects and components are defined is consistent throughout every step. If things change at any point, they should be reflected at all points. It's the consistency that makes implementations less buggy and less complex.

What is most valuable?

The function is the central point of reference and the most valuable thing about Data Factory.

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see videos on YouTube or the Microsoft site with more detailed implementations. The solution lacks a decent UI that allows us to see what kinds of requests are for what objects and how the population of objects is being requested and compared. Right now we have to look at logs to get an idea of what types of calls the data factory receives in what sequence, for example. It would be nice to be able to see it graphically because we currently have to interpret the logs and then create a graphical representation to have an idea of what's going on. In general, it could be simplified and made more user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are thousands of users so the solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

The customer service is excellent. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used a combination of solutions to achieve the same end. Data Factory simplifies things which is why we switched to it. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex. The deployment was carried out in-house and we had around 10 people involved in the implementation. 

What was our ROI?

In terms of time and effort savings, we have a return on our investment. 

What other advice do I have?

It's important to have a good data model before you start using the solution; an idea of the types of data architecture, data objects and components in order to use them. Because of the lack of more user-friendly interfaces, especially for the people debugging the system, I rate this solution eight out of 10.

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.
PeerSpot user
Katarzyna Palikowska - PeerSpot reviewer
ETL Developer at Det Norske Veritas
Real User
Top 10
Stable, scalable solution that's great for copying data
Pros and Cons
  • "Data Factory's most valuable feature is Copy Activity."
  • "Data Factory's cost is too high."

What is our primary use case?

I mainly use Data Factory to load data for ETL processes or to Azure Storage and for testing purposes in our business unit.

What is most valuable?

Data Factory's most valuable feature is Copy Activity.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Data Factory for around two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Data Factory is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've had no problems with Data Factory's scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft's technical support is responsive and quick to help.

What about the implementation team?

We used consultants to implement Data Factory.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Data Factory's cost is too high.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise anybody thinking of implementing Data Factory to calculate their costs at the initial stage in order to have some knowledge about future costs for the whole project. I would rate Data Factory as eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Works with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Easy to set up, and reasonably priced, but the user experience could be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft supported us when we planned to provision Azure Data Factory over a private link. As a result, we received excellent support from Microsoft."
  • "User-friendliness and user effectiveness are unquestionably important, and it may be a good option here to improve the user experience. However, I believe that more and more sophisticated monitoring would be beneficial."

What is most valuable?

Essentially, Azure Data Factory is more aligned to ETL, but I wanted to provide a solution for a full data lake solution where I could leverage functionality, whether it is ETL, data ingestion, data warehousing, or data lake.

What needs improvement?

I was planning to switch to Synapse and was just looking into Synapse options.

I wanted to plug things in and then put them into Power BI. Basically, I'm planning to shift some data, leveraging the skills I wanted to use Synapse for performance.

I am not a frequent user, and I am not an Azure Data Factory engineer or data engineer. I work as an enterprise architect. Data Factory, in essence, becomes a component of my solution. I see the fitment and plan on using it. It could be Azure Data Factory or Data Lake, but I'm not sure what enhancements it would require.

User-friendliness and user effectiveness are unquestionably important, and it may be a good option here to improve the user experience. However, I believe that more and more sophisticated monitoring would be beneficial.

For how long have I used the solution?

I work as an enterprise architect, and I have been using Azure Data Factory for more than a year.

I am working with the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Data Factory is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Data Factory is a scalable product.

In my current company, I have a team of five people, but in my previous organization, there were 20.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good. We encountered no technical difficulties. Microsoft supported us when we planned to provision Azure Data Factory over a private link. As a result, we received excellent support from Microsoft.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Products such as Azure Data Factory and Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog were evaluated. This is something I'm working on. I work as an enterprise architect, so these are the tools that I frequently use.

Previously, I worked with SSIS. We did not change. Because we were building a cloud-based ETF solution Azure Data Factory was an option, but when it came to on-premises solutions, the SQL server integrating the SSIS tool was one option.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy.

It took three to four weeks to get up to speed and get comfortable using it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing appears to be reasonable in my opinion.

What other advice do I have?

My only advice is that Azure Data Factory, particularly for data ingestion, is a good choice. But if you want to go further and build an entire data lake solution, I believe Synapse, is preferred. In fact, Microsoft is developing and designing it in such a way that, it's an entirely clubbing of data ingestion, and data lake, for all things. They must make a decision: is the solution dedicated to only doing that type of data ingestion, in which case I believe Data Factory is the best option.

I would have preferred, but I'm not a frequent user there right now. I need to think beyond Data Factory as an open-source project to include machines and everything else. As a result, as previously stated, Data Factory becomes very small at the enterprise architect level. I was inundated with power automation, power ops, power virtualizations, and everything else in Microsoft that I had to think about.

I would rate Azure Data Factory a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Software Developer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A cloud-based data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating
Pros and Cons
  • "For me, it was that there are dedicated connectors for different targets or sources, different data sources. For example, there is direct connector to Salesforce, Oracle Service Cloud, etcetera, and that was really helpful."
  • "It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory."

What is our primary use case?

I'm not sure how much information I can provide regarding to some kind of security of my company, but I can tell you that we were migrating integrations from from platform to the other, and the other platform was error data factory.

What is most valuable?

For me, it was that there are dedicated connectors for different targets or sources, different data sources. For example, there is direct connector to Salesforce, Oracle Service Cloud, etcetera, and that was really helpful.

What needs improvement?

It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Data Factory for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution doesn't have stability issues. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to scale. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment is automatic and takes few minutes. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Data Factory Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Data Factory Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.