A small swap with big consequences
For years we transformed data before loading it. Cheap cloud warehouses flipped the order—load first, transform inside the warehouse—and it changed how teams work.
Why ELT won for many
- Raw data is preserved, so you can re-transform later.
- Transformations run in SQL, where analysts already live.
- Scaling compute is the warehouse's problem, not yours.
It's not always the answer
ETL still wins when you must mask sensitive data before it lands, or when sources are huge and you only need a slice. We pick per case rather than by fashion.
