Azure Data Factory vs. SAP Datasphere

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Data Factory
Score 8.1 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 Datasphere
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
SAP Datasphere, the next generation of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, is a comprehensive data service that enables data professionals to deliver seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data. It provides a unified experience for data integration, data cataloging, semantic modeling, data warehousing, data federation, and data virtualization. SAP Datasphere enables users to distribute mission-critical business data — with business context and logic preserved — across the data…N/A
Pricing
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSAP Datasphere is available as a subscription or consumption-based model. The SAP Datasphere capacity unit (CU) offers an adaptable approach to pricing that enables any workload on any hyperscaler. The number of CUs required is determined by the unique workload, with the ability to tailor the combination of required services within SAP Datasphere utilizing a flexible tenant configuration. The services that contribute to CU consumption are the core application (compute and storage), data lake, BW bridge, data integration, and data catalog (crawling and storage).
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
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 Datasphere
Chose SAP Datasphere
Because this is a compliant way of getting data out
Chose SAP Datasphere
SAP Datasphere is much more mature than the alternative, in particular for a data warehouse focused on enterprise level modeling and governance.
Chose SAP Datasphere
Three main advantages:
1. cost effectiveness
2. Robust and data friendly environments from all sources
Features
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
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 Datasphere
-
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
4% below category average
SAP Datasphere
-
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
22% below category average
SAP Datasphere
-
Ratings
Data model creation4.47 Ratings00 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
34% below category average
SAP Datasphere
-
Ratings
Integration with data quality tools4.310 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools7.09 Ratings00 Ratings
User Ratings
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(10 ratings)
8.5
(120 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
6.8
(4 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(3 ratings)
8.1
(62 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(21 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(8 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Data FactorySAP Datasphere
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.
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SAP
SAP Datasphere is well suited for scalable cloud based data integration scenarios which also opens up the doors for AI driven insights which are much harder to achieve with on-prem data warehouses. Considering the licensing model of SAP Datasphere being based on consumption driven capacity units cost can be a big consideration for organizations with large volumes of data that can be a pre-requisite for data mining and AI use cases. So this can be a bottleneck or not so well adopted scenario for SAP Datasphere.
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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.
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SAP
  • SAP Data Warehouse Cloud offers free trial for 90 days with free 128 GB of storage and 64 GB memory.
  • Availability of self-service data modeling and analytics on SAP Data Warehouse Cloud enables users to access and analyze data without getting support from the IT team.
  • Without zero coding while collecting, connecting, analyzing and modeling data, it saves us time and operational costs of partnering with external IT support experts.
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
  • Need to have a good understanding of the SAP ecosystem to implement and use it.
  • From a cost perspective it can be little bit on the expensive side for enterprises.
  • The platform is still new and hence more subjected to bugs. But support for it is always good from the SAP team.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Datasphere can come with its own challenges which can feel like a mountain to get over. However, once one has an understanding of how the product works it becomes easier to use. Once the time is spent to get it setup and working correctly very little is needed to keep it running smoothly. Its a great tool it just takes time to learn.
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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
It is one of the best tools and a boon to Logistics teams across the globe. One tends to actually process warehousing data so smoothly and the way demonstration is made while in programs it makes it user friendly. The Inventory touch points that one identify is simply awesome and is best part.
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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
I would greatly acknowledge the services of Sap Data [warehouse Cloud] because we were struggling before its arrival where we used to get manual data connections and this used to consume a lot of time but after its use, we now are able to connect data easily saving a lot of time and finances.
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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.
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SAP
Each of these listed software has its own unique strength and capacity that scales well. SAP Datasphere on its end up against them with more suitability for large establishments with complex data ecosystems with scalability support. Also, it avails a pay-as-you-go pricing for users, and it is widely up for data quality, data governance, and data discovery.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Despite the pricing model being expensive for small businesses, it provides decent features and capabilities for organizations of different sizes and it's an appropriate investment in today's business environment where there is constant pressure to build a scalable and flexible analytics service
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Professional Services
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Ever since we implemented SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, we have been able to reduce the additional costs of hiring third-party service providers by incorporating professional services offered by the vendor.
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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.
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SAP
  • Preserving data quality has enhanced governance on data by having a single source that is accessible to every business user via self-service capabilities.
  • Operational cost is lowered by connecting data in one integrated solution hence making it easy to access information without having to keeping logging to other applications. Additionally, no external IT support is needed since SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has no-coding modeling tools.
  • SAP Data Warehouse Cloud has enabled every business user to understand different data by transforming data to real insights.
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ScreenShots