Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud-based data integration service provided by Microsoft Azure, designed to orchestrate and automate data movement and transformation. It allows users to create data-driven workflows, or pipelines, that can ingest data from various sources, transform it, and load it into target data stores. ADF supports a wide range of connectors, enabling integration with both on-premises and cloud-based systems. Key features include code-free data flows, robust monitoring capabilities, and support for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices. Essentially, Azure Data Factory streamlines the process of building complex ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) workflows, making it a crucial tool for modern data warehousing and analytics.