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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Apache Kafka

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AApache Kafka is an open-source stream processing platform developed by the Apache Software Foundation written in Scala and Java. The Kafka event streaming platform is used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications.N/A

    Azure Data Factory

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's Azure Data Factory is a service built for all data integration needs and skill levels. It is designed to allow the user to easily construct ETL and ELT processes code-free within the intuitive visual environment, or write one's own code. Visually integrate data sources using more than 80 natively built and maintenance-free connectors at no added cost. Focus on data—the serverless integration service does the rest.N/A
    Pricing
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Considered Both Products
    Apache
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    8 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    Features
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Apache Kafka and Azure Data Factory
    Feature
    Apache Kafka
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Data Factory
    8.5
    10 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings8.110 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of Apache Kafka and Azure Data Factory
    Feature
    Apache Kafka
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Data Factory
    7.8
    10 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Simple transformations00 Ratings8.710 Ratings
    Complex transformations00 Ratings7.010 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of Apache Kafka and Azure Data Factory
    Feature
    Apache Kafka
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Data Factory
    6.2
    10 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Data model creation00 Ratings4.37 Ratings
    Metadata management00 Ratings5.48 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow00 Ratings5.910 Ratings
    Collaboration00 Ratings6.99 Ratings
    Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.310 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of Apache Kafka and Azure Data Factory
    Feature
    Apache Kafka
    -
    Ratings
    Azure Data Factory
    5.6
    10 Ratings
    36% below category average
    Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings4.210 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings7.09 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
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    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM MQ
    Score9 out of 10
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    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    TIBCO Messaging
    Score7.7 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Apache KafkaAzure Data Factory
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Apache
    Apache Kafka is well-suited for most data-streaming use cases. Amazon Kinesis and Azure EventHubs, unless you have a specific use case where using those cloud PaAS for your data lakes, once set up well, Apache Kafka will take care of everything else in the background. Azure EventHubs, is good for cross-cloud use cases, and Amazon Kinesis - I have no real-world experience. But I believe it is the same.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Best scenario is for ETL process. The flexibility and connectivity is outstanding. For our environment, SAP data connectivity with Azure Data Factory offers very limited features compared to SAP Data Sphere. Due to the limited modelling capacity of the tool, we use Databricks for data modelling and cleaning. Usage of multiple tools could have been avoided if adf has modelling capabilities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Apache
    • Really easy to configure. I've used other message brokers such as RabbitMQ and compared to them, Kafka's configurations are very easy to understand and tweak.
    • Very scalable: easily configured to run on multiple nodes allowing for ease of parallelism (assuming your queues/topics don't have to be consumed in the exact same order the messages were delivered)
    • Not exactly a feature, but I trust Kafka will be around for at least another decade because active development has continued to be strong and there's a lot of financial backing from Confluent and LinkedIn, and probably many other companies who are using it (which, anecdotally, is many).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Data Ingestion - it works very well with numerous data sources.
    • Data pipeline orchestration: It is a generic, popular tool for orchestrating data pipelines.
    • Works well in Azure ecosystem, Azure services and data platforms like Databricks.
    • It is a serverless and scalable solution for cloud data integration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Apache
    • Sometimes it becomes difficult to monitor our Kafka deployments. We've been able to overcome it largely using AWS MSK, a managed service for Apache Kafka, but a separate monitoring dashboard would have been great.
    • Simplify the process for local deployment of Kafka and provide a user interface to get visibility into the different topics and the messages being processed.
    • Learning curve around creation of broker and topics could be simplified
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Granularity of Errors: Sometimes, Azure Data Factory provides error messages that are too generic or vague for us, making it challenging to pinpoint the exact cause of a pipeline failure. Enhanced error messages with more actionable details would greatly assist us as users in debugging their pipelines.
    • Pipeline Design UI: In my experience, the visual interface for designing pipelines, especially when dealing with complex workflows or numerous activities, can become cluttered. I think a more intuitive and scalable design interface would improve usability. In my opinion, features like zoom, better alignment tools, or grouping capabilities could make managing intricate designs more manageable.
    • Native Support: While Azure Data Factory does support incremental data loads, in my experience, the setup can be somewhat manual and complex. I think native and more straightforward support for Change Data Capture, especially from popular databases, would simplify the process of capturing and processing only the changed data, making regular data updates more efficient
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Apache
    Kafka is quickly becoming core product of the organization, indeed it is replacing older messaging systems. No better alternatives found yet
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Apache
    Apache Kafka is highly recommended to develop loosely coupled, real-time processing applications. Also, Apache Kafka provides property based configuration. Producer, Consumer and broker contain their own separate property file
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    So far product has performed as expected. We were noticing some performance issues, but they were largely Synapse related. This has led to a shift from Synapse to Databricks. Overall this has delayed our analytic platform. Once databricks becomes fully operational, Azure Data Factory will be critical to our environment and future success.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Apache
    Support for Apache Kafka (if willing to pay) is available from Confluent that includes the same time that created Kafka at Linkedin so they know this software in and out. Moreover, Apache Kafka is well known and best practices documents and deployment scenarios are easily available for download. For example, from eBay, Linkedin, Uber, and NYTimes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have not had need to engage with Microsoft much on Azure Data Factory, but they have been responsive and helpful when needed. This being said, we have not had a major emergency or outage requiring their intervention. The score of seven is a representation that they have done well for now, but have not proved out their support for a significant issue
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Apache
    I used other messaging/queue solutions that are a lot more basic than Confluent Kafka, as well as another solution that is no longer in the market called Xively, which was bought and "buried" by Google. In comparison, these solutions offer way fewer functionalities and respond to other needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Azure Data Factory helps us automate to schedule jobs as per customer demands to make ETL triggers when the need arises. Anyone can define the workflow with the Azure Data Factory UI designer tool and easily test the systems. It helped us automate the same workflow with programming languages like Python or automation tools like ansible. Numerous options for connectivity be it a database or storage account helps us move data transfer to the cloud or on-premise systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Apache
    • Positive: Get a quick and reliable pub/sub model implemented - data across components flows easily.
    • Positive: it's scalable so we can develop small and scale for real-world scenarios
    • Negative: it's easy to get into a confusing situation if you are not experienced yet or something strange has happened (rare, but it does). Troubleshooting such situations can take time and effort.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Facilitate better decision-making and improve business processes.
    • Optimize business process outcomes by increasing internal efficiency and operational effectiveness.
    • Boosts revenue growth while improving business process agility.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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