“Understanding ETL Pipelines: Extract, Transform, Load in Data Engineering “
INTRO
Hey there,
In this article, we’ll be exploring the ETL Pipeline process in Data Engineering, it’s importance, working principles an real world Application.
ETL stands for Extraction, Transformation and Loading.
It encompasses the process of gathering Data for various sources, processing the Data an Storing it for User consumption; either a Data scientist Oran Analyst.
ETL is a very key concept in Data Engineering. As an aspiring Data Engineer, you wouldn’t want to miss this.
Stay with me!!.
Basically, ETL can be defined as a process which involves “fetching out” data from disparate sources such as relational Databases, APIs( Application Programming Interference), Web service, Web scraping etc, and transforming this Data into meaningful an an resourceful information and storing them in Data warehouse or repositories.
Data sources haven’t been so wide as now. Therefore this calls for a need to pay attention to Data an it’s processing. As Companies try to cope with large amount of Data they deal with form day to day business, they tend to look for a better way to improve the process of gathering this information , Processing them an Loading them up for storage .
However, that’s where ETL comes in. It is very essential for processing and managing large-scale data in Data Engineering Workflow.
We’ll be looking at this in clearer Details in the course of this article. Let’s jump right in !.
The Processes
EXTRACT; Mining:- This is the first step among others in the ETL process. The extraction stage has to do with collecting data from heterogeneous sources ranging from Flat files, APIs, websites etc.
Here, the Data is unprocessed an it’s gotten from identified source by the Data Engineer.
However, it is important to note that when extracting data, only useful data are extracted not just “some Data”.
Also, it’s pertinent to note that while extracting data the quality y an authentication of the Data is necessary.
TRANSFORM; refining :-
This is the next step after extraction. It involves the process of cleaning, moulding, merging an Enriching the Data extracted. This is the most vigorous part of the ETL pipeline process. It consumes a lot of time but it’s worth it. This is where the raw data is processed into meaning and useful information. It can also involves merging data from various sources.
Note that in the transformation stage of the data, compliance to the Data regulations policies is important. What this means is that Personal and sensitive Data are managed properly inline with the Data security an Privacy Policy.
LOAD; Use. :-
After a vigorous process of extracting an transforming data into useful information, the Data is now ready for storage or analyze.
This stage involves Data warehousing . The data warehouse stores clean and processed data which will be useful for BI (Business Intelligence) cases or for Data Analyst .
On the other hand, data lakes is use to store all type of raw data which is useful for data scientist.
TOOLS FOR ETL
The ETL pipeline process will not be possible without this tools employed.
The three main power ETL tools include Apache Airflow, Talend and AWS glue.
The Apache Airflow aids in running complex data pipelines. It is an open source platform that automated, process and manage Big Data.
AWS(Amazon web service) also automated data. It helps to manage an monitor data ensuring high quality across data lakes an Pipelines.
Talend on the other hand aids to fasten data mobility an arrangement. It uses Java programming language an it is also useful for visual representation of Data using Drag an Drop. It is flexible, accurate an efficient.
REAl LIFE APPLICATION
After understanding what ETL is, the processes an tools employed for the ETL process, let’s have a look at some of it real life application
ETL is used in several field for data processing such as Healthcare sector, marketing, Banking an finance etc.
Data of patients medical history diagnosis an treatment methods are gotten by health institutions on a daily basis . The ETL process helps them to collect , process an store this data which will in patients treatment, accessibility an Security.
Marketing firm get data of how do their product are going in the market. This helps them in competition an helps them to know what areas of their products to work on.
Banks gathers data daily such as debit,credit alert, customer complaints etc process them an store them for analysis, security an reference. All these employs the ETL pipeline process
CONCLUSION
The importance of understanding the ETL pipeline process as a potential data engineer cannot be over emphasized. It’s application helps to produce efficient, meaningful and accurate data for analysis. It is also important to pay attention to the tools employed to aid this process.
All these will be handful in your data engineering journey.
Catch ya next time!!!
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