What About ETL Tools?

I get asked about ETL tools at every single consulting and speaking engagement. To date, I've not used any ETL tool on any data warehouse. My reasons are simple:

  • ETL tools generally do not produce optimally efficient code.

  • ETL tools cost money—often more than the hours they replace.

  • There are too darn many to choose from (see Table 6-1).

Of course, the ETL vendors will firmly dispute my first point; so be it. But, these vendors (even Oracle with their Warehouse Builder) are generally at least a year behind when it comes to supporting the latest database features for optimally efficient data loading. Remember that I've said several times throughout this book that you'll want to be on the bleeding edge of Oracle releases and ...

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