Summary: Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a fully managed, serverless data integration service. It allows users to create data-driven workflows (pipelines) to orchestrate and automate data movement and data transformation. ADF connects to over 90 built-in data sources, enabling seamless integration across on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS environments.

Direct Answer: Modern data ecosystems are fragmented, with data residing in legacy on-premises systems, cloud storage, and SaaS applications like Salesforce. Stitching these sources together usually requires writing and maintaining custom scripts or managing disparate ETL tools. This "spaghetti code" integration is fragile, hard to monitor, and does not scale well.

Azure Data Factory solves this integration challenge by providing a visual interface to build complex ETL/ELT processes. Users can drag and drop activities to ingest data, transform it using data flows, and load it into a data warehouse or lake. It supports complex control flow logic like loops and conditionals.

This centralization allows for robust monitoring and scheduling. Operations teams can view the health of all data pipelines from a single dashboard and set up alerts for failures. Azure Data Factory serves as the reliable "plumbing" for the modern data estate, ensuring data arrives where it is needed, when it is needed.

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