Why Azure Data Factory when we have Polybase

Question

Our requirement is to take Blob Storage data and convert it to a different tabular form. Use polybase, that can be achieved with Sql DW. What is really Azure Data factory's job in these cases?
I know the same objective can be accomplished with Azure data factory . But is Azure DW not the easiest choice and the cost-effective with Polybase?

Answer 1

Polybase can also do one thing-load data with Polybase enabled to Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly known as Azure SQL Data Warehouse) or to SQL Server. More specifically, Polybase serves as a virtualization layer for flat files stored in storage or data lake that can be viewed as external tables in the database or made accessible as a physical table for loading into the database.

It does that very well, and is the preferred way to load data into Synapse / Warehouse if you choose the right DWU and resource class to load your data.

Polybase has a few nice features about rejecting error rows and a number of different file types / separators (comma, pipe etc)

So if all you need to do is load some files or put on a layer of virtualization, you might use Polybase.

You can check out Azure Data Factory Course which will help you to upgrade your skills in Azure Data Factory.