Azure Data Factory vs. Denodo

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

Denodo allows us to create and combine new views to create a
virtual repository and APIs without a single line of code. It is excellent
because it can present connectors with a view format for downstream consumers
by flattening a JSON file. Reading or connecting to various sources and
displaying a tabular view is an excellent feature. The product's technical data
catalog is well-organized.

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.

Incentivized

• Database Agnostic: You can easily connect to different environments and mash up data sets.
• The "magic" of data virtualization: No data is created, so data is reported in near-real-time to end users.
• It's easy to use UI for developers. You just connect to a data source, create tables, and join them to other datasets.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Caching - but I am sure it will be improved by now. There were times when we expected the cache to be refreshed but it was stale.
• Schema generation of endpoints from API response was sometimes incomplete as not all API calls returned all the fields. Will be good to have an ability to load the schema itself (XSD/JSON/Soap XML etc).
• Denodo exposed web services were in preliminary stage when we used; I'm sure it will be improved by now.
• Export/Import deployment, while it was helpful, there were unexpected issues without any errors during deployment. Issues were only identified during testing. Some views were not created properly and did not work. If it was working in the environment from where it was exported from, it should work in the environment where it is imported.

Incentivized

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

Denodo is very easy to use. It has a user-friendly drag and drop interface. I'm not a fan of the java platform it resides on.

Incentivized

Denodo is a tool to rapidly mash data sources together and create meaningful datasets. It does have its downfalls though. When you create larger, more complex datasets, you will most likely need to cache your datasets, regardless of how proper your joins are set up. Since DV takes data from multiple environments, you are taxing the corporate network, so you need to be conscious of how much data you are sending through the network and truly understand how and when to join datasets due to this.

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

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Denodo is simple and easy to use. Highly recommended unless you have huge volumes of data

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• It is a huge advantage that we can connect to many different databases to provide data rapidly and accurately.
• It has proven to be a valuable environment for deploying data virtualization solutions, and its user community is active in finding and fixing issues.

Incentivized