Azure Data Lake Gen1 vs Gen2

As Azure will retire Gen1 on Feb 29, 2024, all users will need to migrate their Gen1 to Gen2. While Gen2 provides many advantages compared to Gen1, there are still many companies and people sticking to Gen1.

Before going for how to migrate Gen1 to Gen2, let me talk about the key differences between Azure Data Lake Gen1 and Gen2:

1. Architecture: ADLS Gen1 uses a distributed file system called the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), while ADLS Gen2 uses a distributed object store called Azure Blob Storage.
2. Performance: ADLS Gen2 is designed to provide better performance and scalability than ADLS Gen1, particularly for large-scale analytics workloads. ADLS Gen2 uses a hierarchical namespace and supports massively parallel processing, making it faster and more efficient than ADLS Gen1.
3. Security: Both ADLS Gen1 and Gen2 provide strong security features, such as encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, and integration with Azure Active Directory. However, ADLS Gen2 also supports access control lists (ACLs) and Azure Private Link, which provides a secure way to access data over a private network connection.
4. Cost: ADLS Gen2 is generally more cost-effective than ADLS Gen1, as it uses Azure Blob Storage, which is a lower-cost storage option than HDFS.

How to migrate Gen1 to Gen2