Astro by Astronomer vs. Azure Data Factory

Astronomer is well suited for workflow and dependency management for enterprise-level data lakes. It is not a product for data processing though. Different source systems can be integrated, it also provides powerful interfaces for alerting and monitoring. Easy to build DAGs, graphical UI, API support makes the product more user-friendly as well. Astronomer also does a great job on user training.

Incentivized

Well-suited Scenarios for Azure Data Factory (ADF): When an organization has data sources spread across on-premises databases and cloud storage solutions, I think Azure Data Factory is excellent for integrating these sources. Azure Data Factory's integration with Azure Databricks allows it to handle large-scale data transformations effectively, leveraging the power of distributed processing. For regular ETL or ELT processes that need to run at specific intervals (daily, weekly, etc.), I think Azure Data Factory's scheduling capabilities are very handy. Less Appropriate Scenarios for Azure Data Factory: Real-time Data Streaming - Azure Data Factory is primarily batch-oriented. Simple Data Copy Tasks - For straightforward data copy tasks without the need for transformation or complex workflows, in my opinion, using Azure Data Factory might be overkill; simpler tools or scripts could suffice. Advanced Data Science Workflows: While Azure Data Factory can handle data prep and transformation, in my experience, it's not designed for in-depth data science tasks. I think for advanced analytics, machine learning, or statistical modeling, integration with specialized tools would be necessary.

Incentivized

• Workflow management
• Wide availability of plugins
• Dependency management on upstream

Incentivized

• It allows copying data from various types of data sources like on-premise files, Azure Database, Excel, JSON, Azure Synapse, API, etc. to the desired destination.
• We can use linked service in multiple pipeline/data load.
• It also allows the running of SSIS & SSMS packages which makes it an easy-to-use ETL & ELT tool.

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• More language agnostic
• Flexible fork and join capabilities
• Near real time UI updates in case of deployment of enhanced DAGs

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• Limited source/sink (target) connectors depending on which area of Azure Data Factory you are using.
• Does not yet have parity with SSIS as far as the transforms available.

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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

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

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Astronomer is a fast, secure, scalable workload management solution. It provides world-class user training along with easy to interact support.

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The easy integration with other Microsoft software as well as high processing speed, very flexible cost, and high level of security of Microsoft Azure products and services stack up against other similar products.

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• It helps to build scalable, available and low maintenance workloads
• Integrated Alerts and notifications helps to detect load issues in the early stages
• Ensures meeting data SLAs

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• It is very useful and make things easier
• Debugging can improve
• Its better suited than other products with the same objective

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