Extract, Transform & Load

Technically, ETL stands for ‘extract, transform and load’. Historically, this meant that you extracted data from source systems, transformed it appropriately, and then loaded into a target system. Further, this process has traditionally been associated with the loading of data into a data warehouse in a batch-based process.

The problem with this description is that none of these things are true any longer. If we take the association with data warehousing first, there are a number of other environments in which you may want to use an ETL process - such as when you are migrating from one database to another or if, after a merger, you need to synchronise different databases. There are also cases where you might want to move data from a source system directly into an application environment such as a call centre or contact management system.

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