The End of ETL
Take a Look Around You…
If you work in data in 2021, the acronym ETL is everywhere.
Ask certain people what they do, and their whole response will be “ETL.” On LinkedIn, there are thousands of people with the title ETL Developer. It can be a noun, verb, adjective, and even a preposition. (Yes, a mouse can ETL a house.)
Standing for “Extract, Transform, and Load,” ETL refers to the general process of taking batches of data out of one database or application and loading it into another.
Data teams are the masters of ETL as they often have to stick their grubby fingers into tools and databases of other teams — the software engineers, marketers, and operations folk — to prep a company’s data for deeper, custom analyses.
The good news is that with a bit of foresight, data teams can remove most of the ETL onus off their plate entirely. How is this possible?
Replacing ETL with Intentional Data Transfer
The path forward is with ITD or Intentional Transfer of Data. You see, the need for ETL arises because no one builds their user database or CMS with downstream analytics in mind.