What does data transformation enable data analysts to accomplish?
"Big data” isn’t just a word but a challenge that every data-driven organization is facing in the present time. The variety and volume of data are growing at a tremendous rate, making it difficult for organizations to break the complex data silos and drive insights.Data has become a thing, that if transformed correctly, can become a game-changer for all-size organizations. This factor alone calls for the need to incorporate the best data transformation practices to speed up your analytics process. But before moving on to the uses of data transformation in analytics, we must first learn what data transformation is. Show
What is Data Transformation?Data transformation is a process of converting raw data into a single and easy-to-read format to facilitate easy analysis. To turn your data into something meaningful, you must have the right data transformation tool by your side. Data transformation is also known as ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), which sums up the steps involved in transforming data. As per ETL, the data is first extracted from multiple sources, transformed into a required format, and then loaded into a data warehouse for powering analysis and reporting processes. DataChannel offers a data integration platform that helps you get relief from the tiresome and manual process of data transformation. We provide you a scalable warehouse with the level of customization you need to transform all your data from different sources into a preferred format. The platform is designed to work best with any cloud-service provider so that you can access your sensitive business information from anywhere and at any time. With our services at your end, you can easily extract, transform, manage, and utilize large volumes of data like a pro. There are mainly two stages of data transformation, which are as following: Stage 1 – Understanding and mapping the data:The first stage of data transformation involves the identification of the data sources. Once each data source is identified, the next step is to determine their structure and what type of data transformation will be required to integrate them. You can connect your data sources based on the kind of information they contain or how the information of one source is related to another. After combining all your data, the next step is data mapping, in which you will define how the fields of all data sources are connected and the kind of transformation they require. Stage 2 – Transforming the data:In this stage, you have to perform the different transformations you mapped to the fields of your data sources. You can use different strategies for transforming the data, such as:
Why is it necessary to transform data?Every business generates a good amount of data daily, but the same is not useful until it is transformed into a useful format. To get benefitted from raw data, its transformation is necessary. With data transformation, you can make different pieces of data compatible with one another, move them to another system, and join with other data to drive useful business insights. Here are other few reasons stating why data transformation is necessary:
Raw data is like unrefined gold, precious to businesses, but to derive value from it, the same needs to be transformed. By getting your data lined up in a specific format, you can have a unified view of your business operations that further helps you to make result-oriented business decisions. How to transform data?Data transformation acts as a power booster for the analytics process and helps you make better data-driven decisions. The process of data transformation begins with extracting the data and flattening the curve of its types. This is done to make the data compatible with your analytics systems. The further process is carried by data analysts and data scientists that work on the individual layers of data. Every layer helps in designing or outlining specific sets of tasks that help you meet business goals. The use of data transformation in analytics and how it serves the various functions of your analytics stack. Extraction and ParsingData aggregation starts with extracting the data from multiple source systems and copying the same to its destination. The transformation process starts with structuring the data into a single format, so it becomes compatible with the system in which it is copied and the other data available in it. Parsing is a process of analyzing data structures and confirming the same with the rules of grammar. Translation and MappingTranslation and mapping are part of the basic steps of data transformation. Data translation is a process of converting big amounts of data from one format to a preferred one when it is transferred from one system to another. At the same time, data mapping is all about finding matching fields between two distinct data models. Filtering, aggregation, and summarizationData combined from different sources may bring unnecessary columns, fields, and records with them. What if we tell you the same can be avoided by applying the necessary filters? Yes, you read it right. Irrelevant data can be omitted from the extraction process by using data filtering.Data can also be summarized or aggregated by, for example, transforming a time series of customer transactions to daily or hourly sales count.Business Intelligence (BI) tools can help you to perform filtration and aggregation. In case you want a more efficient approach, it’s better to do the transformations before a reporting tool accesses the data. Enrichment and ImputationData from diverse sources can be merged to create enriched information. For example, merging the customers’ transactions with their information table can make the process of customer analysis more efficient. The long fields can be split into multiple columns to fill the missing values, or corrupted values can be removed for enriching the available data. This will boost the process of data analysis and provide you relevant and accurate business insights. Indexing and OrderingData must be transformed to become logical and comply with the data storage scheme. You can create indexes to optimize the performance of a database. It will also help you to locate and access the required data in a database quickly. Anonymization and encryptionData anonymization refers to any piece of data that cannot be reversibly transformed. It is done to protect the identification of a particular set of information or individual. Now, the level of competition among organizations has become tough and calls for the encryption of private data. You can encrypt data at multiple levels, ranging from individual databases to entire records. Modeling, typecasting, formatting, and renamingA whole bunch of transformations that help you reshape your data into the desired format without changing the content. It makes your data compatible by casting and converting data types, renaming columns, tables, and schemas for better clarity, and adjusting times and dates with format localization. Refining the data transformation processBefore transforming the data, it’s important you replicate it to a data warehouse built for analytics. If you want to make the most out of your ELT solution, it’s better to opt for a cloud data warehouse, like the one provided by DataChannel. Challenges in Data TransformationEverything has its pros and cons, and the same goes for data transformation. There are certain challenges in the process of data transformation, which are as follows:
DataChannel – An integrated ETL & Reverse ETL solution
Wrapping upData transformation makes data organized. It allows organizations to bring their data from various locations and formats it into meaningful information. The formatting process not only improves the data quality but protects applications from making errors like null values, incorrect indexing, unexpected duplicates, and incompatible formats. The right data transformation practices will help you ensure compatibility between your systems, applications, and types of data. Different types of data have different transformation needs, and by incorporating the best solution, you can turn your data into a fuel that will drive your business towards success. What is the purpose of data transformation?The goal of the data transformation process is to extract data from a source, convert it into a usable format, and deliver it to a destination. This entire process is known as ETL (Extract, Load, Transform).
What is data transformation in data analytics?Data transformation is the process of converting, cleansing, and structuring data into a usable format that can be analyzed to support decision making processes, and to propel the growth of an organization. Data transformation is used when data needs to be converted to match that of the destination system.
Why is transformation important before data analysis?Data transformation increases the efficiency of analytic processes and enables data-driven decisions. Raw data is often difficult to analyze and too vast in quantity to derive meaningful insight, hence the need for clean, usable data.
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