The challenges of extract, transform and load (ETL) for data integration in near real-time environment

Abstract

Organization with considerable investment into data warehousing, the influx of various data types and forms require certain ways of prepping data and staging platform that support fast, efficient and volatile data to reach its targeted audiences or users of different business needs. Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) system proved to be a choice standard for managing and sustaining the movement and transactional process of the valued big data assets. However, traditional ETL system can no longer accommodate and effectively handle streaming or near real-time data and stimulating environment which demands high availability, low latency and horizontal scalability features for functionality. This paper identifies the challenges of implementing ETL system for streaming or near real-time data which needs to evolve and streamline itself with the different requirements. Current efforts and solution approaches to address the challenges are presented. The classification of ETL system challenges are prepared based on near real-time environment features and ETL stages to encourage different perspectives for future research.