Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Business Warehouse

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Data Factory
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft'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
SAP BW
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
SAP Business Warehouse, or SAP BW (formerly SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse) is SAP's legacy data warehouse solution, now superseded by SAP BW/4HANA, and the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud which was launched in 2019. SAP BW versions up to 7.4 have reached end of maintenance. SAP BW 7.5 support is extended to align with SAP Business Suite with NetWeaver components. For existing customers maintenance is scheduled to continue through 2027, with extended support available through 2030.N/A
Pricing
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Data FactorySAP BW
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
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Considered Both Products
Azure Data Factory
Chose Azure Data Factory
Azure Data Factory is more of a universal pipeline. SAP BW is a tool offering good SAP connectivity but very limited third-party connectivity. The same is the case with BW4hana. SAP Datasphere is offering better connectivity with SAP sources, but not so good when compared to …
SAP BW

No answer on this topic

Features
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
8.5
10 Ratings
3% above category average
SAP Business Warehouse
-
Ratings
Connect to traditional data sources9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
7.8
10 Ratings
3% below category average
SAP Business Warehouse
-
Ratings
Simple transformations8.710 Ratings00 Ratings
Complex transformations7.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
6.3
10 Ratings
21% below category average
SAP Business Warehouse
9.0
5 Ratings
2% above category average
Data model creation4.57 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Metadata management5.58 Ratings00 Ratings
Business rules and workflow6.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration7.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Testing and debugging6.310 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
5.7
10 Ratings
33% below category average
SAP Business Warehouse
-
Ratings
Integration with data quality tools4.310 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools7.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
9.3
6 Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.16 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings9.66 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Location-Based Data Governance00 Ratings9.46 Ratings
Data Exploration
Comparison of Data Exploration features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
6.6
6 Ratings
12% below category average
Visualization00 Ratings6.66 Ratings
Data Warehouse
Comparison of Data Warehouse features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
-
Ratings
SAP Business Warehouse
8.0
6 Ratings
3% below category average
High-Volume Data Processing00 Ratings8.66 Ratings
Data Warehouse Management00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Administrative Automation00 Ratings7.36 Ratings
Self-Optimization00 Ratings6.96 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Small Businesses
Skyvia
Skyvia
Score 10.0 out of 10
Google BigQuery
Google BigQuery
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
Oracle Exadata
Oracle Exadata
Score 9.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(7 ratings)
7.3
(15 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Data FactorySAP Business Warehouse
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
SAP
SAP BW is best for: 1. Large enterprises 2. Enterprises with 3+ legacy systems with entrenched users (politically difficult to merge) 3. Enterprises with employees who can understand both the technical capabilities of SAP BW and the needs of the business users - ability to speak both languages, otherwise the program could be unwieldy and potentially underutilized (it's not particularly inexpensive) SAP BW is less appropriate for: 1. Small enterprises 2. Enterprises who have well established, same location, CRM and UFS - the integration of data analysis will be easier and less expensive with other solutions 3. HANA
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Pros
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • It tracks bin locations for parts which can be really helpful.
  • SAP Business Warehouse tells you who has a part checked out so you can find it.
  • It shows current parts shortages so buyers are flagged to get parts on order based on current demand.
Read full review
Cons
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
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SAP
  • Age of software is showing as it struggles with very large data modules, which were not as prevalent in its early years
  • Querying performance at times can be very slow
  • Support and development for BEx has been discontinued or hard to find.
Read full review
Usability
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.
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SAP
The overall usability is robust. The tool offers lot of native feature to achieve all the data warehousing functions. Starting from data modelling to reporting and authorisation, the tool provided native features for almost all the areas of analytics. Integration of hybrid modelling with hana studio opened the usage of sql functions with the sap analytics
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Support Rating
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
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SAP
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
SAP
SAP Business Warehouse scores higher in data warehouse functionalities for integration to SAP ERP and other SAP solutions such as SAP CRM, SAP APO, and SAP SRM. Standard SAP data source extractors which are available in SAP ERP can be used immediately for full or delta replication into SAP Business Warehouse. System governance in SAP Business Warehouse is top-notch with change management support for migration between system landscape from the development system to production system.
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Return on Investment
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • Positive - This tool report output is in Excel so it's a good tool if your users are familiar with Excel.
  • Positive: this tool has rich BI content so developing extractors for standard processes from SAP ECC can be done in minutes.
  • Negative: It lacks lot of features which are available in other newer tools today. For ex. - rich charts, rich filtering, exporting capabilities, user interface.
  • Negative: Its not a plug and play tool like Qlikview, Lumira, or Tableau. Even a single report development in this tool takes a lot of time compared to others.
Read full review
ScreenShots