ETL pipeline

An ETL pipeline refers to the process of extracting data from a system, transforming the data, and loading into another target repository. The acronym ETL stands for Extract, Transform, and Load and refers to three stages of the data pipeline process. In particular, these three stages involve the following processes:

• Extract: The first step of the ETL pipeline is to pull data from a database such as an SQL or NoSQL database, or cloud platform that holds data such as a CRM.
• Transform: Transforming refers to the process of converting the structure and format of the original data to fit the target repository.
• Load: This is the process of placing the transformed data into a target repository such as a database, a data warehouse, or a cloud-based data warehouse.

ETL pipelines enable the process of converting raw data to match a target system in a systematic and accurate process. With the raw data loaded into the target repository, it can then be used for other purposes such as data analysis to drive business decisions. With an functioning ETL pipeline in place, data teams can save time and create a more efficient process of transferring data from one system to another. 

A few common use cases of ETL pipelines include:

• Centralized data from various sources into a single data lake
• Taking data from one system and enriching it with data from another
• Migrating data from a legacy system to a new data repository
• Transforming and cleaning data so it can be used for data analysis and insights

In short, ETL pipelines remove data silos from an organzation and help create a single source of truth for the company. By feeding BI tools and data visualization, they are a key part of building a more data-driven organization.

As a leader in marketing analytics, Singular provides a marketing ETL pipeline that is used to capture and automatically transfer your data to a data warehouse without a single line of code. With Singular’s marketing ETL, your data team saves time by transfering all your aggregate and user-level data automatically through one single process.

Here’s an example of how Singular’s ETL pipeline can help BI analysts from our guide on the subject:

You can create a replica of your marketing data in your own data warehouse. You can directly connect Tableau to that data. You can build custom reports or dashboards on top of it. You join sensitive or proprietary data to your marketing data within your safe and secure internal infrastructure.

By cutting costs and requiring essentially zero maintenance, this eliminates the expense and wasted human resources required to manage data pipelines. In short, with this increased efficiency, you’re able to remove manual errors and make faster and more accurate data-driven decisions.