We use the solution for building a few warehouses using Microsoft services.
Technical Manager at PalTech
Provides orchestration and data flows for transformation for integration
Pros and Cons
- "The data flows were beneficial, allowing us to perform multiple transformations."
- "When we initiated the cluster, it took some time to start the process."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
We worked on a project for the textile industry where we needed to build a data warehouse from scratch. We provided a solution using Azure Data Factory to pull data from multiple files containing certification information, such as CSV and JSON. This data was then stored in a SQL Server-based data warehouse. We built around 30 pipelines in Azure Data Factory, one for each table, to load the data into the warehouse. The Power BI team then used this data for their analysis.
What is most valuable?
For the integration task, we used Azure Data Factory for orchestration and data flows for transformation. The data flows were beneficial, allowing us to perform multiple transformations. Additionally, we utilized web API activities to log data from third-party API tools, which greatly assisted in loading the necessary data into our warehouse.
What needs improvement?
When we initiated the cluster, it took some time to start the process. Most of our time was spent ensuring the cluster was adequately set up. We transitioned from using the auto integration runtime to a custom integration runtime, which showed some improvement.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When running the process server, we encountered frequent connection disconnect issues. These issues often stemmed from internal problems that we couldn’t resolve then, leading to repeated disruptions.
I rate the stability as seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
20 people are using this solution daily. I rate the scalability around eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service supported us whenever we needed it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used SQL Server.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy and takes four to five hours to complete.
What was our ROI?
They have reduced the infrastructure burden by 60 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is reasonable when compared with other cloud providers.
What other advice do I have?
We have used the Key value pair for authentication with the adoption. I can rate it around eight out of ten.
I recommend the solution.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Senior Consultant at Veraqor
Seamless cloud-based data integration providing a versatile platform with scalable data processing, diverse data connectors, and comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect is the copy capability."
- "Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue."
What is our primary use case?
My task involves extracting data from a source, performing necessary transformations, and subsequently loading the data into a target destination, which happens to be Azure SQL Database.
How has it helped my organization?
The company is experiencing significant benefits as one of our customers is successfully implementing the solution we provide. We offer support to the customer in utilizing Azure Data Factory, and their satisfaction level is quite high.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect is the copy capability.
What needs improvement?
Implementing a standard pricing model at a more affordable rate could make it accessible to a larger number of companies. Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with it for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite satisfactory. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides impressive scalability. There are a total of eight switches currently in use. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is available for all products, and you can reach them without any hassle. They offer assistance through various channels and are proficient in addressing technical issues, ensuring the highest level of support. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past, we used Oracle Data Integrator.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup has been smooth and without any difficulties.
What about the implementation team?
Deployment time is contingent on the volume of data. If there are millions of records to process, it will understandably take a significant amount of time. Conversely, for smaller datasets, the deployment can be relatively quick, often within a matter of minutes to reach the destination. In the cloud deployment process, the initial step involves defining the instance. Subsequently, in the copy activity, we specify both the source and destination. Following this, communication with the destination takes place. This process constitutes the necessary steps for deployment, and we proceed accordingly. Due to the cloud system being provided by Microsoft, they handle the maintenance of the servers.
What was our ROI?
The routing value is quite impressive, especially considering that we successfully implemented it for one of our clients, and they expressed satisfaction. For our latest projects, we've acquired additional customers who also require this product for their setups. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While I can't specify the actual cost, I believe it is reasonably priced and comparable to similar products.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend considering this solution because, from my perspective, it is not overly expensive. The pricing seems reasonable, making it a viable option to explore. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Azure Data Factory
September 2025

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CIO, Director at Prosys Infotech Private Limited
Easy to deploy, good support, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data."
- "We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is to connect to various different data sets and do an EAT into our data warehouse.
What is most valuable?
We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data. The solution gives everything under one roof, which is an important feature.
What needs improvement?
We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We had a few technical calls with the Microsoft technical support team for some issues that we were facing, which they helped us resolve.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and the team is able to deploy between six and seven days.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is based on the amount of data sets that we are ingesting. The more data we ingest the more we pay.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten. We have been happy with all the customer implementations, and the customers are satisfied with the ADF pipelines. We are also currently examining the Synapse pipelines, which are likely similar.
We have six developers using the solution in our organization.
People should use the solution for two reasons. Firstly, we can switch off any data pipelines we set up to save costs. Secondly, there are several connectors available in one place, including most standard connectors.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Founder and CEO at Zertain
A stable solution that can be used to set up a data lake information repository
Pros and Cons
- "Most of our customers are Microsoft shops and prefer Azure Data Factory because they have good licensing options and a trust factor with Microsoft."
- "Azure Data Factory's pricing in terms of utilization could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use Azure Data Factory to set up a data lake information repository.
What is most valuable?
Most of our customers are Microsoft shops and prefer Azure Data Factory because they have good licensing options and a trust factor with Microsoft. Our core customers are traditional Microsoft shops who prefer to expand on Microsoft on-cloud.
What needs improvement?
Azure Data Factory's pricing in terms of utilization could be improved. Our customers complain that the solution's bills keep growing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with Azure Data Factory for more than five years as a consultant.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Data Factory is a pretty stable solution. I rate Azure Data Factory a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Data Factory is a scalable solution. We have around 15 to 20 customers, of which about 8 to 10 use Azure Data Factory.
How was the initial setup?
Azure Data Factory's initial setup needs some amount of professional training and qualification.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It seems very low initially, but as the data grows, the solution’s bills grow exponentially.
What other advice do I have?
Azure Data Factory is deployed on-cloud for our clients.
Azure Data Factory is a pretty solid solution with all the factors and integration built in. It's as good as any product.
I recommend users compare with Snowflake before choosing Azure Data Factory. We've had customers who prefer Snowflake just for its ease of use. Since we're not a Microsoft official reseller, I give options to customers and then let them pick and choose some from Azure Data Factory, Snowflake, or anything on Amazon.
Overall, I rate Azure Data Factory an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
BI Technical Development Lead at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
A solution that is ideal for individuals or teams looking to extract, transform, and load data into a database
Pros and Cons
- "Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution."
- "Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution to extract, transform, and load the data into the database.
What is most valuable?
Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution.
What needs improvement?
Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory. Although the platform displays which pipelines are running, it doesn't offer a monitoring tool that allows for the sequential execution of pipelines and the ability to visualize end-to-end data flow. As such, this feature is currently missing from the platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for more than six years. Also, I am an end-user of the solution, and I initially used to work on Azure Data Factory V1. Now, I have switched to Azure Data Factory V2.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten. So, scalability can be improved. Also, there are around 150 people in my company using the solution. Moreover, we use the solution daily in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support between eight to nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I was using Informatica. My company wanted to shift to a solution that could be deployed on the cloud, so we chose Azure Data Factory.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup process was easy. On a scale where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the initial setup process an eight out of ten. The solution is deployed on the cloud.
Since multiple projects are going on in my organization, there is no uniformity in the time taken to deploy the solution in our company. However, I can say that it only takes a few days to carry out the deployment process.
Our organization has multiple project teams, so each team carries out its deployment process.
To give an average, I would consider that if there are fifty ongoing projects in our company, and if we consider a person from each project, fifty people are needed for the deployment and maintenance process.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's implementation process was done with our in-house team's help.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot comment on the pricing parts since our company's admin team handles it.
What other advice do I have?
Those who want to move to a cloud platform can choose Azure Data Factory since it is the best tool. Since certain improvements are required in the solution, I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Executive Manager at Hexagon AB
Light, inexpensive way to ingest data
Pros and Cons
- "Data Factory's best features are simplicity and flexibility."
- "Data Factory would be improved if it were a little more configuration-oriented and not so code-oriented and if it had more automated features."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use Data Factory to ingest data. For example, if we need to pull data into our data warehouse from somewhere like Azure Event Hub or salesforce.com.
How has it helped my organization?
We have telemetry that streams into an Azure Event Hub, and Data Factory allowed us to move that data from the Event Hub into our data lake and reduce the cost of that compared to the other tooling we were using.
What is most valuable?
Data Factory's best features are simplicity and flexibility. It's been very easy to set up connections to different types of data sources to pull data into our warehouse.
What needs improvement?
Data Factory would be improved if it were a little more configuration-oriented and not so code-oriented and if it had more automated features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Data Factory for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate Data Factory's stability eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate Data Factory's scalability eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, and only one person was required for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate Data Factory's pricing nine out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I think Data Factory is a good fit when you need a light, inexpensive way to ingest data. I would rate it eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CEO - Founder / Principal Data Scientist / Principal AI Architect at Kanayma LLC
Provides great consistency that has made implementations less buggy and less complex
Pros and Cons
- "The function of the solution is great."
- "Lacks a decent UI that would give us a view of the kinds of requests that come in."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to quickly instantiate certain components in Azure with the aim of having consistent use of certain components and objects. It provides one point of reference rather than having the need to replicate points of references, and then having to keep them in sync.
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped our company by providing consistency. For example, by making sure that the way certain objects and components are defined is consistent throughout every step. If things change at any point, they should be reflected at all points. It's the consistency that makes implementations less buggy and less complex.
What is most valuable?
The function is the central point of reference and the most valuable thing about Data Factory.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see videos on YouTube or the Microsoft site with more detailed implementations. The solution lacks a decent UI that allows us to see what kinds of requests are for what objects and how the population of objects is being requested and compared. Right now we have to look at logs to get an idea of what types of calls the data factory receives in what sequence, for example. It would be nice to be able to see it graphically because we currently have to interpret the logs and then create a graphical representation to have an idea of what's going on. In general, it could be simplified and made more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are thousands of users so the solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service is excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used a combination of solutions to achieve the same end. Data Factory simplifies things which is why we switched to it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. The deployment was carried out in-house and we had around 10 people involved in the implementation.
What was our ROI?
In terms of time and effort savings, we have a return on our investment.
What other advice do I have?
It's important to have a good data model before you start using the solution; an idea of the types of data architecture, data objects and components in order to use them. Because of the lack of more user-friendly interfaces, especially for the people debugging the system, I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Big Data Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Easy to learn, simple to use, and has a nice user interface
Pros and Cons
- "We haven't had any issues connecting it to other products."
- "I have not found any real shortcomings within the product."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution in a data engineering context for bringing data from source to sink.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very comfortable to use. I'm happy with the user interface and dashboards. I'm pretty happy with everything about the solution.
We haven't had any issues connecting it to other products.
It's a stable product.
What needs improvement?
I have not found any real shortcomings within the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for the past year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product has been very stable and reliable. I'd rate the stability nine out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is a team of 30 people working on the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I've connected with technical support a few times.
They sent a support engineer or a field engineer to us, and he helped us out.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure about the exact cost of the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer and end-user.
Our company chose to use this solution based on the fact that it is a Microsoft product. We're using a lot of solutions, including Outlook and Teams. We also use Power BI. We try to use Microsoft so that everything is under one umbrella. That way, there is no difficulty with connecting anything.
It's a good solution to use. There are lots of videos available on YouTube, and it is very easy to learn. It's very easy to perform things on it as well, which is one thing that a product like ThoughtSpot lacks. There is no training needed like Power BI.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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