Fivetran, which builds automated technology to help analysts replicate data into cloud warehouses, unveiled on Monday its new in-warehouse transformation product, Fivetran Transformations, at the Snowflake Summit data conference.
Designed to bring simplified, fail-safe data transformations to Fivetran’s automated data pipeline solution, the agile end-to-end tool enables data teams to execute SQL when new data arrives or on a schedule. Users of Snowflake’s warehouse platform can now trial the feature for free; support for additional database and warehouse destinations including Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, and Microsoft Azure will roll out soon.
Fivetran Transformations integrates seamlessly with the company’s automated data platform and features simplified management of the entire pipeline in one, single tool.
Fivetran Transformations is an extension of the software company’s 100+ pre-engineering data connectors. The new tool features everything needed to orchestrate SQL-based transformations in the data warehouse as opposed to antiquated data pipeline technology, which applies transformations before the data enters the warehouse.
By putting automated transformations inside the warehouse, as Fivetran does, the original data is protected and available should a restore be required. This delivers enormous scalability, the ability to recover from failure, and time-saving benefits.
Fivetran is built on the idea that configuration-heavy ETL (extract-transform-load) protocols are outdated and burdensome in cloud-based environments. Its zero-configuration E-L-T (extract-load-transform) model reduces risk, conserves analytical and technical resources for strategic projects, and allows for greater business agility to deploy new tools and scale across an organization.
Once a data source connection is initiated within Fivetran, analysts can use a trigger or time-based schedule to automatically update transformation tables whenever new data is loaded into the warehouse.
Transformations are SQL scripts that are executed in the warehouse based on specific events or conditions. The main purpose of transformations is to map data into a specific shape that will be easier or faster to use in the next pipeline elements.
“Fivetran is all about keeping it simple: that’s why our data pipelines are zero-configuration,” said George Fraser, co-founder and CEO at Fivetran. “The new Fivetran transformation tool is the ideal companion to our data pipelines. It allows our users to solve complex problems without wrangling infrastructure so you can focus your efforts on creating insights for your business.”
“Fivetran’s new transformation tool is the embodiment of modern ELT design and offers clear advantages over traditional ETL, which isn’t built to harness cloud capabilities,” Snowflake Partner Ecosystems Product Manager Harsha Kapre said. “Since the transformation tool is integrated with the data warehouse, users can make the most of an extremely performant and infinitely scalable cloud-built data warehouse architecture, like Snowflake.”
