A Quick Look

Capabilities

Ascend

dbt

Orchestration

Native orchestration with smart reprocessing and backfill

DAG-based orchestration with Azure integrations

Pipeline Coverage

Ingest → Transform → Deliver in one platform

⚠️

Ingests and transforms—but requires manual config, tuning, and orchestration

Developer Velocity

Build fast with AI assist, full-code + low-code, and modular pipelines

Click-heavy UI, slow to build, no dev environment

Automation

Event-driven, rule-based, built-in automation

Manual triggers, no data-aware logic

Observability

Built-in lineage, metrics, and real-time alerts

Limited—basic logs, no true pipeline-level visibility

Debug Experience

Interactive debugging with Smart Tables and visual previews

Debugging is log-first, UI-only, and painful at scale

Scalability

Elastic scale with minimal config or duplication

Scaling = more pipelines, more monitoring, more problems

Ease of Maintenance

Pipelines are reusable, modular, and self-healing

Every fix is a one-off, every change adds fragility

Where ADF Shines

ADF has become a go-to option for teams already deep in the Azure ecosystem. It’s tightly integrated, familiar, and checks the orchestration box for many common use cases.

Strong fit for Azure-native environments

ADF connects seamlessly to services like Synapse, Azure Blob, and Data Lake Storage.

Low-code interface helps non-engineers get started

For smaller workflows and early experimentation, the drag-and-drop UI can lower the barrier to entry.

Good for basic batch orchestration

With triggers, linked services, and parameterized pipelines, ADF is capable of coordinating data movement—especially in less complex jobs.

Where ADF Falls Short

ADF was built to orchestrate—not to optimize, accelerate, or empower engineers. And it shows.

Slow to build in, slower to iterate

Everything is built visually, one step at a time. You’re clicking through nested UIs instead of shipping.

No real development environment

No local dev. No AI assist. No modularity. You’re stuck in a browser, copy-pasting JSON and hoping it works.

Debugging is painful and slow

When something breaks, you’re digging through logs—not getting answers. Observability is minimal, and root cause is rarely obvious.

Manual orchestration everywhere

There’s no intelligent reprocessing, no automation based on data change or metadata. You wire up everythingyourself.

Velocity suffers

ADF pipelines take longer to build, test, fix, and manage. The more you use it, the more your team is stuck maintaining pipelines instead of delivering data products.

Included in Every Plan

Every Ascend plan includes full access to the platform — no feature gating, no user limits. Build, automate, and scale with confidence using the entire suite of AI-powered tools.

Data Ingestion

Say goodbye to fragile handoffs and brittle ingest jobs.

Whether you’re moving data from lakes, warehouses, databases, APIs, or legacy systems, Ascend makes it easy. Flexible connectors and dynamic schema handling ensure your pipelines stay reliable as systems evolve.

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Transformation

Transform Data with Speed at Scale

Ascend automates orchestration using rich metadata and event-driven triggers—so pipelines run only when needed, and custom logic is easy to build in.

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Orchestration

Orchestration That Writes Itself

Monitor pipeline performance, trace lineage end-to-end, and debug faster with real-time, metadata-powered insights.

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Observability

See Everything. Fix Anything.

Run faster, spend less—Ascend uses metadata and fingerprinting to cut unnecessary compute without sacrificing performance.

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DataOps

Built-In DataOps for Modern Teams

From Git-backed workflows to access controls and secure deployment environments, Ascend simplifies operational excellence with native support for modern DevOps practices.

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Say Goodbye to Fragile Handoffs and Brittle Ingest Jobs

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Transform Data
with Speed at Scale

From SQL to Python, declarative to imperative, Ascend supports multiple authoring modes — all integrated with version control and modular pipeline design. Build fast, iterate safely.

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Orchestration
that Writes Itself

Ascend’s DataAware engine lets you design intelligent workflows using the metadata you already have — turning your designs into powerful automation. Ascend's Smart Tables process data up to 100x faster.

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See Everything.
Fix Anything.

From real-time monitoring to full lineage and change tracking, Ascend gives you deep visibility into your data flows — so you can spot issues fast and optimize with confidence.

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Built-In DataOps
for Modern Teams

From Git-backed workflows to access controls and secure deployment environments, Ascend simplifies operational excellence with native support for modern DataOps best practices.

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Intelligence at the Core

Ascend's Intelligence Core combines metadata, automation, and AI in a layered architecture that empowers teams to build pipelines 7x faster and cut processing costs by 83%.

Ascend UI - Data Pipeline Deployment Dashboard

Unified Metadata Collection

Ascend tracks data, code, and user actions in a unified metadata layer — powering automation, observability, and auditability through the entire data lifecycle.

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DataAware™ Automation Engine

Ascend’s automation engine uses rich metadata to orchestrate pipelines — managing dependencies, triggering tasks, and supporting custom event-driven workflows.

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Ascend Agentic Engineering experience in the UI

Integrated AI Agents

Let AI do the tedious parts of data engineering — Ascend’s context-aware agents suggest code, explain logic, generate docs, and even automate steps on your behalf.

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