What is Azure Data Factory?

Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud service that’s designed to help organizations manage big data. As Microsoft puts it, Azure Data Factory is the “cloud-based ETL and data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows for orchestrating data movement and transforming data at scale.”

Complex data integration, ETL, and ELT projects are common scenarios where using ADF makes sense.
 

What are some key features of Azure Data Factory?

One of the key features of Azure Data Factory is that it is a unified analytics platform, meaning users can perform various tasks from a single environment. Tasks like data warehousing and machine learning and data integration can all be performed in ADF.

ADF gives users the flexibility of using server-less or dedicated resources, empowering customers to choose whichever options fits their needs best.

The platform also boasts over 95 native data connectors and is “deeply integrated” with SQL Engines and Apache Spark.
 

Who is Azure Data Factory designed for?

ADF is designed for organizations and teams who need to move and transform huge volumes of data and create highly-effective data processing pipelines.
 

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