What is ELT?
It stands for extract, load, and transform- the processes a data pipeline uses for replicating the data from a source system into a target system such as a cloud data warehouse.
1. Extraction is the first step in which data is copied from the source system.
2. Loading is the next step, where the pipeline replicates data from the source into the target system that could be a data lake or a data warehouse.
3. Transformation is where once the data is in the target system, the organizations can run whatever transformations they need. Usually, they will transform the raw data in different ways for use with different tools or business processes.
ELT and its Infrastructure
ELT is a modern variation on the older ETL process in which the transformations take place before loading the data. Running the transformations before the load phase results in a more complex data replication process. ETL tools need processing engines to run the transformations before loading the data into a destination. While with ELT, businesses use the processing engines in the destinations for efficiently transforming data within the
