[Software] Best ETL tools and software 2022

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What is an ETL tool?

 

Today, data analytics plays a major role in corporate decision making. It is able to do this because data is culled from a variety of sources and then assembled in a single data repository that corporate decision makers can access. When data is combined from different areas throughout the company, corporate decision makers get a 360-degree view of what is going on. This enables them to make more informed decisions.

For example, if a vice president of sales wants to know why a certain product isn’t selling well, he/she can query a central data analytics repository which contains all of the information on that particular product from throughout the enterprise. The sales VP can see the customer complaints about the product that customer service logged, as well as the number of product returns that the warehouse processed. He/she can also see that engineering is working on a revision of the product to cure the defects that have been reported. The VP now has a thorough understanding of why the product hasn’t been doing as well in revenues as was projected.

 

A decade ago, this type of comprehensive analysis and visibility was difficult to achieve. Corporate departments were using their own systems and data, and this data stayed in data silos that weren’t always shared with others with a need to know. Now, with more modernized approaches to preparing and sharing data, a more complete picture of what is going on throughout the company is available to corporate decision makers.

How have organizations managed to pull data from variety of internal and eternal sources, and then combine it into a single data repository that everyone can access?

They use extract, transform and load (ETL) software, commonly referred to as ETL tools, to move the data, transform it and then load it into a target data repository.

How do ETL tools work?
ETL software obtains data from one source, transforms the data into a form that is acceptable for another source and then moves the data to the new target source. ETL software is an automated software tool. When companies use ETL software, they no longer have to convert data from one source to another by hand. This saves time, effort and manual errors.

 

When an ETL tool extracts data, the data can be extracted from any internal or external data source, whether it is a file or a database.

Once the ETL tool has the data, it transforms the data into a form that is compatible with the target data repository that the data will be loaded into. This data transformation is based upon the data conversion rules that IT defines to the ETL software, which then performs the data transformation automatically, based upon those rules.

As a final step, the ETL software takes the transformed data and then moves it into the target data repository.

How do you use an ETL tool?
ETL tools can be run for both batch and real-time data processing. These tools can also be used in both on premises and cloud environments.

The value of ETL tools rests in their ability to automate the movement of data between systems, but they are only as good as the set of business and operational rules that IT provides them.

For instance, an organization will have a set of data governance and data cleaning standards. These might include the exclusion of certain data fields in data transfers between systems, or changes in the formatting of data so that data from an incoming data source will be able to conform and to interoperate with data in the target data repository that might be formatted differently. 

 

In the past, IT had to make and execute these data transformation and quality rules manually. This was a time-consuming process that also had the potential of introducing errors, since the process was done manually. Now with ETL tools that automate major portions of the data extract, transformation and load process, IT can be largely hand-off in these operations, although it still must define the rules of operation and data quality and governance for the  ETL tool so the ETL software can do its job.

It is also up to IT to continuously monitor the ETL process in the same way that IT monitors the performance of any other piece of software. This way, if there is a problem, IT can intervene and solve it.

What to look for in an ETL tool
Companies of all sizes need to move data from point to point and then aggregate it in order to support more holistic and informed decision making. 

With advent of analytics and a need to understand the business more holistically, IT and end business decision makers want to derive more value from their data, and they want it faster. This is where ETL tools fit in. They automate data moving that used to be manual, and they come with pre-packaged APIs (application programming interfaces) that automatically connect to many po[CENSORED]r databases and applications, without IT having to do these integrations “by hand.”

That being said, there are several factors that companies should consider before purchasing an ETL solution.

What do you need the ETL for?

 

Are you going to be pulling data from different sources that range from unstructured or semi-structured IoT data to legacy system data that resides on internal servers and mainframes? Or is your company almost wholly cloud-based, with a clear preference for an ETL solution that operates within the cloud where most of your data and applications are hosted? What if your company has data and systems that are both on premises and cloud based? What’s the best choice for that scenario?

How do you want prepare your data?
Is the generic formatting (system to system or database to database) that your ETL tool comes pre-packaged with going to meet your data cleaning and formatting needs, or do you need to add extra edit rules to data?

How well can you support and leverage your ETL tool?
If you are a smaller company, do you have skilled personnel on board who are trained in ETL methods and tools? Even if you have this personnel on board, do you have a need to also have your non-IT end business users use the ETL software?

How much do you want to pay for an ETL tool?
Do you prefer an ETL tool that is wholly based upon usage that you can control and monitor for cost, or a cloud-based ETL tool that doesn’t require internal servers and storage from your data center? What about the training and support that might be required for your IT staff and end users? Which ETL software option will be most cost-effective for you?

The best ETL tools
ETL tools can work in either cloud or on premises IT environments; they also come in either proprietary or open source software. Here are some of the most po[CENSORED]r ETL tools in those categories.

ETL in the cloud

AWS Glue is a nice fit for companies that use SQL databases, AWS and Amazon S3 storage services. AWS Glue enables you to clean, validate, organize and load data from disparate static or streaming data sources into a data warehouse or a data lake. It also allows you to process semi-structured data such as clickstream (e.g., website hyperlinks) and process logs. Its strength is in its ability to work with SQL, which many companies have competence in. On the programming side, AWS Glue executes jobs using either Scala or Python code.

 

With AWS Glue, you can schedule ETL jobs based on a schedule or event, or you can trigger jobs as soon as data becomes available. AWS Glue is an on-demand tool that automatically scales to accommodate the processing and storage resources that you need, and that gives you visibility of runtime metrics while it processes.

AWS Glue integrates well with other AWS systems and processes, so if AWS is your primary data repository and processor, AWS Glue works well. It also has APIs for third party JDBC (JAVA)-accessible databases like DB2, MySQL, Oracle, SyBase, Apache Kafka and MongoDB.

AWS offers free online courses. It also provides certification programs. 

Pricing is free for the first million accesses/objects stored and is billed on a monthly basis that is based upon usage thereafter. 

More Info: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/etl-tools/