Azure Data Factory vs. Denodo

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

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

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

Incentivized

• 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

• 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