There is no doubt that contemporary day businesses have a data-driven approach. Hence companies depend on data replication from manifold sources using ETL tools. You can easily write your ETL code, or even you can adopt a ready-made ETL service to make sure that you do the work for you. You can check out a good and effective freshdesk etl tool for your business. However, if you want to explore the options and then make a choice then this post would be helpful.
This post is going to get you across some factors that would help you choose the right ETL option for your business. Remember that It is somewhat challenging to find an ETL platform or tool that supports all the saas tools, databases, and even other data sources your company is making use of . Thus, you prefer the one that enables replication of your most necessary data sources.
Overall Extensibility & Compatibility
As an organization or business will grow, the chance of the selected ETL tool supporting new data sources is going to be less. The ETL tool must definitely have the capacity to add extra data sources. There must be other third-party type of tools that your clients use. The ETL service must be in a position to stay compatible with those tools through apis, webhooks, or even other sorts of software.
Proper Usability
You have to check the overall simplicity of the ETL tool’s interface, no matter it is easy to set up integrations, to schedule and even monitor replication tasks. The tool must definitely support data replication on diverse schedules. The granularity, flexibility and even overall customization must allow your business turn out to be productive.
Scalability
With the overall growth of the business, the data volumes is also going to increase. Thus, select a tool that can fulfil your growing needs in the absence of deteriorating service. A data pipeline architecture supports a huge volume of data. Remember as your business grows, you do want to be sure that the tools you are using are scalable enough to stay compatible with your work. So, make sure that you do not leave behind the scalability aspect.
Security is a must
Security is the most critical element of a system. For a cloud-based data pipeline, make sure that you keep into account the below given factors:
- The security controls must be user-configurable.
- There has to be an API key management
- If the vendor encrypts data at motion and even rest, otherwise, you must be in a position to allow encryption.
- No matter HTTPS gets used for web-based data sources.
- What kind of schedule gets used to delete your data after it actually reaches the destination?
- What really does the vendor offer for the integration of data sources and even destinations?
- Find out if it uses Secure Shell (SSH) for robust authentication
Remember that for your understanding, HIPAA, SOC 2, and even GDPR compliance are three of the most prime measures according to national and international data security standards. Make sure that you check out the details of the certifications possessed by the tool or platform. Once you know that it has it, you can be at peace definitely.
The overall Customer Support
The ETL tool’s support service must also be to resolve diverse types of issues instantly or permit you to fix such ones yourself. The customer support team could be available once you require their help. Try to simply assess how much you need to depend on them or the availability of support channels such as email, phone, online chat, or web form. Also keep in mind that the documentation has to be written with the relevant technical expertise needed to use the tool.
Check for Data transformations
In the present time , most of the companies offer data warehouses on cloud platforms. The transformations takes place after the data has been loaded in the warehouse, making use of a modeling tool such as debt or even Talend Data Fabric, or simply the SQL.
Stability as well as reliability
Try to evaluate how much downtime you can permit and check the overall service level agreement (SLA). It is going to describe what percentage of uptime they promise. To examine a proper platform for stability and even reliability, make sure that the extracted data is right and even reaches the destination in a sensible timeframe. Of course, reliability is one thing that you cannot afford to miss out on.
Batch & Stream processing
Batch and Stream ingestion are two types of processes in building a data pipeline architecture. Most ETL tools do actually batch extraction from data sources, but others do simply stream processing for real-time events. One requires to know which one is perfectly for which analysis.
Check the Pricing
ETL tools could charge based on the sum of data replicated, the number of data sources used, or even the number of users making use of the software. Some ETL service providers also have different pricing plans on their websites whereas others are going to customize as per your use case. Choose the one that will allow a free trial for the new users, free sort of historical data loads, and even replication from fresh data sources. Similarly , it would be wise if you consider scalability to understand how your expense will differ with data volume.
Remember that every single step in the realm of ETL process is important. By forming up a set of ETL best practices, you can make every step and the overall process , more consistent. Keep the following tips in mind when implementing ETL in your business:
- Leverage AI and automation
- Extract only what you require :
- Maximize data quality:
- Manage overall mappings
The point is having a good tool or platform is not enough for you to impellent ETL. You have to make sure that you implement it well. After all, it is all about what you choose and how you implement it in your business.
Conclusion
To sum up, it is time that you check out ETL options and choose the one that you feel is apt for your business needs.