Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer AssociatePlan and implement data analytics solutions (10-15%)Hard
A data engineer needs to move a large volume of historical data (several terabytes) from an on-premises Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) to a Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse. The data consists of various file formats including Parquet, ORC, and CSV. The transfer needs to be secure, reliable, and minimize network egress costs from the on-premises environment. Which Microsoft Azure service, integrated with Fabric, is best suited for the initial bulk transfer of this data?
- AAzure Data Box.
- BAzure VPN Gateway.
- CAzure ExpressRoute.
- DAzure Data Factory with self-hosted integration runtime.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Azure Data Box.
Azure Data Box is specifically designed for secure, offline, large-scale data transfers into Azure, which includes data that will eventually reside in a Fabric Lakehouse. It helps minimize network egress costs for terabytes of on-premises data by physically shipping a device.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Azure VPN Gateway provides secure connectivity over the internet but is not optimized for terabyte-scale bulk data transfer due to bandwidth limitations and potential egress costs.
- C. Azure ExpressRoute provides a private, high-bandwidth connection to Azure, but it's a network service, not a data transfer service itself, and requires significant setup and ongoing cost. It doesn't inherently minimize egress costs in the same way Data Box does for bulk migrations.
- D. While Azure Data Factory can transfer data from HDFS, for 'several terabytes' it would incur significant network egress costs and potentially take a long time over a standard internet connection.
Azure Data Box
Azure Data Box is a portfolio of physical and virtual appliances used for secure, offline data transfer to and from Azure storage, optimized for large datasets (terabytes to petabytes) to minimize network costs and transfer times.
- Physical appliance for large-scale data transfer.
- Minimizes network egress costs.
- Secure and reliable transfer process.
- Supports various data types and Azure storage destinations.
Memory trick: Data Box moves your terabytes, avoiding network pains.