Implementing Azure Cloud Design Patterns

Azure Data Factory

Working with data is a complex issue and, therefore, it is not very easy to describe the Azure Data Factory service.

Let's start with a simple definition:

In general, a data factory allows you to process local data at the same time (for example from a SQL Server) along with data from the cloud (for example, from an Azure SQL Database, Blobs, and Tables). It does not matter whether the data is in a structured, semi-structured or unstructured form. The data sources (input datasets) are created, processed and monitored within the data factory via a simple, highly available data pipeline.

This is the simple definition, let's now come to a more complex definition:

Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service ...