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5.1.1. Data Ingestion with Azure Data Factory
💡 First Principle: Data Factory is an orchestration service—it moves and transforms data but doesn't store or analyze it. Think of it as the logistics company that picks up packages, routes them through distribution centers, and delivers them to destinations. It coordinates the work; others do the heavy lifting.
ETL vs. ELT (Critical Concept!)
| Approach | Process | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| ETL | Extract → Transform → Load | Traditional; transform before loading |
| ELT | Extract → Load → Transform | Modern; load raw data first, transform with cloud compute |
Modern preference: ELT. Load raw data into cheap storage (Data Lake), then use powerful cloud compute (Synapse, Databricks) to transform. Storage is cheap; compute is flexible.
Written byAlvin Varughese
Founder•15 professional certifications