Simplify Your Data Movement: AWS Unleashes the Zero-ETL Integration
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Introduction
In the ever-evolving landscape of modern business operations, the seamless integration of data is a main factor for organizations aiming to get insights from diverse sources for analytical, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) workloads. Traditionally, the Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process has been the cornerstone for preparing and consolidating data into a centralized repository. However, the challenges, complexities, and delays associated with traditional ETL have paved the way for innovative solutions, such as Zero-ETL, designed to streamline these critical processes.
Understanding ETL
Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) is a vital process responsible for gathering, moving, combining, cleaning, and normalizing data from various sources, preparing it for analytical workloads. This process plays a pivotal role in business intelligence, addressing specific needs like predicting outcomes and generating reports.
Traditional ETL processes, though effective, bring forth challenges such as complex configurations, additional costs, and delayed time to analytics. Handling inconsistencies and ensuring data security add further complexity. Moreover, as data volumes grow, the costs associated with ETL pipelines can escalate, necessitating costly infrastructure upgrades and maintenance efforts.
What is Zero-ETL Integration
Zero-ETL integration emerges as a fully managed solution designed to make transactional or operational data available in Amazon Redshift in near real time. With this innovative solution, there is no need to maintain an ETL pipeline, as AWS takes care of the entire ETL process by automating the creation and management of data replication from the source to the destination. Consequently, Zero-ETL integration minimizes the need for building complex ETL data pipelines, enabling point-to-point data movement and eliminating traditional challenges associated with ETL.
Zero-ETL integration supports a variety of databases as sources, including Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition, Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition (preview), RDS for MySQL (preview), and Amazon DynamoDB (limited preview). The target warehouse for AWS Zero-ETL Integration is Amazon Redshift.
Considerations When Using Zero-ETL Integrations
When you use Zero-ETL integrations, several considerations come into play. here is a list of some consideration that you need to know when using Zero-ETL upto the time of publishing this article :
- The cluster must be running Aurora MySQL version 3.05.0 (compatible. with MySQL 8.0.32) or higher, or Aurora PostgreSQL (compatible with PostgreSQL 15.4 and Zero-ETL Support).
- Zero-ETL will change some parameters in your source DB parameter group, such as binlog_checksum and binlog_format.
- Backups need to be enabled on both source and target databases.
- Some data types in the source database may not be supported in Redshift.
- Your target Amazon Redshift data warehouse must meet specific prerequisites, including running on Amazon Redshift Serverless or an RA3 node type, being encrypted (if using a provisioned cluster), and having case sensitivity enabled.
Zero-ETL Integration Test Case
To demonstrate the effectiveness of Zero-ETL integration, a test case was created using Aurora MySQL database as the source and Redshift as the target for the data pipeline.
The source database, Aurora MySQL version 8.0.mysql_aurora.3.05.1, utilized a dedicated parameter group, as Zero-ETL automatically applies changes to certain database parameters. The target warehouse, Redshift a one node type of ra3.xlplus, encrypted with a dedicated parameter group.
A schema named ‘classicmodels’ with data in the Aurora MySQL database was configured for Zero-ETL integration to initiate online replication of the schema. Below are some screenshots showcasing the key aspects of this test case, illustrating the simplicity and efficiency of Zero-ETL integration.
Step 1
RDS console -> go to Zero-ETL integration tab
Step 2
For Source database we choose the Aurora Mysql database that we created for the test case
Step 3
If the source database parameter doesn’t have the needed values for some parameters then you can check the option “ fix it for me (require reboot) “. Then new parameter group will be created with required value and will be attached to the Aurora and reboot will be performed to reflect the changes to the DB
Step 4
Note: If you wish to do the changes yourself here are the Parameter that were changed in our test case
Step 5
Choose the target as redshift and also you can check the fix for me option
Step 6
Click next and create
Step 7
After sometime the Integration will be created.
Step 8
Once the database is created the replication will start and you can start querying and transforming the data in your warehouse to suit your business need
Conclusion
In conclusion, the emergence of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Zero-ETL integration represents a transformative shift in the domain of data integration. This innovative approach simplifies the Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process, minimizing complexities which will make AWS Zero-ETL stands as a powerful enabler, unlocking the full potential of data for strategic decision-making and driving innovation in the digital era. By eliminating the barriers associated with traditional ETL, AWS continues to lead the charge towards a more agile, cost-efficient, and data-driven future for organizations worldwide.
Dima Hamed