What do Xplenty, Snowflake software, and dbt (data build tool) have in common? When used together, they merge the best of ETL (extract, transform, load) and ELT (extract, load, transform) into a powerful, flexible and cost-effective ETLT (extract, transform, load, transform) strategy. In this guide, we’ll show you how to create an ETLT strategy with Xplenty, Snowflake software, and dbt. But first, we’ll explain why you'd want to use this strategy to build an ETLT data transformation stack.

Use these criteria to choose the best ETL tool for your data integration needs.

How do data integration architectures work, and how are they continuing to evolve?

ETL tools and Heroku Connect both offer bidirectional data connections to Salesforce. So it would be natural to assume that you only need one or the other for your Salesforce integration. But, in fact, each tool has its own particular strengths that make the two systems complementary. Heroku is a software development platform and cloud service provider that empowers developers who build, deploy and scale web applications.

Salesforce is the world's #1 CRM (customer relationship management) platform. The service provides access to valuable data by logging and collecting customer interactions, regardless of the channel in which they take place. Whether it gets the information from phone calls, website transactions, or social media posts, Salesforce delivers customer data in real-time so business owners can gain essential insights.

Extract, Load, Transform, or ELT, is a process that extracts data from the source, loads it directly into a data warehouse or data lake, and then transforms it to make it available for business intelligence tools. It supports all data types, from raw to structured. ELT is a popular way to ingest large volumes of raw data quickly, but it brings many security concerns with it.

TL;DR: Yes, you can do it. And no, you don’t need a separate tool for it. “Reverse ETL” is a fairly recent addition to the data engineer’s dictionary. While you can read articles upon articles about it (there’s a pretty good ‘primer’ in the Memory Leak blog), it can be summarized as being the art and science of taking data from your data warehouse and sending it somewhere other than BI - generally into other tools and systems where it becomes operational.

Transferring data is a hassle if you don't have the right tools, particularly when you're transferring from multiple sources or in various formats. Fortunately, you can use tools to make the entire ETL process simpler and less prone to error. Platforms like Teradata make it easy to get your data where it needs to go.

The Talend Product Suite tries to be a one-stop-shop for everything data. Whether you need an ESB, iPaaS, API Gateway, or ETL platform, Talend has a tool for it. Xplenty, on the other hand, is a targeted solution that focuses on ETL only. It's an enterprise-grade ETL solution that empowers non-tech-savvy users to build sophisticated data integrations. Both Talend and Xplenty are powerful ETL solutions with excellent reputations and high functionality.

Don’t make costly mistakes as your business strives to make better use of data.