ETL & Data Management Glossary

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software interface that relays information between two different software applications.

Big Data

Big data refers to extremely large, overwhelming volumes of data that are too massive to be organized and analyzed using traditional methods.

Big Data Analytics

Big data analytics applies advanced analytic methods and tools to exceptionally large data sets to uncover patterns, correlations, and other insights.

Big Data Automation

Big data automation refers to technologies that automate the processes and tasks associated with gathering, maintaining, and analyzing big data.

Big Data Security

Big data security is the process of securing vast quantities of data through advanced methods and expanded security capabilities.

Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) utilizes software and technology to help companies improve decision-making through actionable data.

Change Data Capture (CDC)

Change data capture (CDC) tracks changes in a source dataset and automatically transfers those changes to a target dataset.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a technology that enables users to store and access data through the internet or remote data centers instead of hosting the data on on-premise hardware.

Cloud Data Migration

Cloud data migration is the process of moving data, elements, and applications to a cloud environment or server that is off-premise.

Cloud Integration

Cloud integration is a form of technology that integrates and combines cloud-based systems into a unified whole.

Columnar Database

Columnar databases are database management systems (DBMS) that store data in columns instead of rows.

Critical Data

Critical data is information that an organization or company decides is necessary for successful operations.

Data Access

Data access is the authorized permission and ability to collect, inspect, adjust, copy, and transfer data from IT systems.

Data Aggregation

Data aggregation is the general process where data or information is collected and then summarized in a simplified form.

Data Analytics

Data analytics is the process of investigating, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data to uncover useful insights and inform decision-making.

Data Architecture

Data architecture is the IT structure used to maintain a company’s data resources and manage their data assets.

Data Blending

Data blending combines different sets of data, from multiple sources, into a new, single data set.

Data Cleansing

Data cleansing is the process of adjusting or removing data that is improperly formatted, irrelevant, incomplete, or otherwise incorrect.

Data Engineer

A data engineer builds, deploys, and maintains the organization’s data infrastructure.

Data Governance

Data governance is the collection of methods, regulations, roles, tools, and systems that ensure an organization's data is properly utilized.

Data Harmonization

Data harmonization merges data from different sources into a unified view that can be utilized in multiple ways, by multiple people.

Data Integration

Learn about data integration, a process that allows you to combine data from multiple sources into a single system.

Data Lake

A data lake is a centralized location for storage that allows an organization to keep any amount or size of structured or unstructured data.

Data Migration

Data migration is the process of moving data from one system to another.

Data Orchestration

In essence, the term refers to the process of harvesting big data from a variety of data-storing locations for the purpose of combining and organizing it

Data Transformation

Data transformation refers to the process of altering the structure, the format, and the original value of data

ELT

Extract, Load, Transform "ELT" is a modern variant of traditional "ETL", where extracted data is loaded into a target database in its original raw format before any data transformation takes place.

ETL

"ETL" is a common computing procedure, which stands for "Extract, Transform, and Load." "ETL" is used when you have multiple data sources that you want to bring into a centralized database for querying/analysis.

Reverse ETL

In reverse ETL, data is extracted from the data warehouse, transformed inside the warehouse to meet the data formatting requirements of the third party system, and then loaded into the third party system for action taking.

Data Management & ELT Glossary