DataFlow
A tool for ETL procedure
DataFlow, a tool for the development and management of ETL procedures, stems from the more than ten years Iso Sistemi experience in Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse.
It is a graphical design, development and testing environment of ETL procedures, and a scheduler for the automated management of the various procedures.
DataFlow is a Microsoft certified product since 2008.
In the same year the software has been awarded at the 4th edition of the Premio Perotto in the Computer Section.
DataFlow functions
DataFlow is primarily a development tool, which provides the user with a graphical environment in which the individual jobs to implement and their dependencies are represented graphically, in a very intuitive way.
DataFlow provides natively a series of tasks for the execution of the most common data extraction, normalization and registration requirements, typical of data warehouses. These tasks can be compounded together, in a sequential or parallel manner, and configured in various ways, to solve many of the problems of ETL processes. The defined tasks can also be combined with each other, to define more complex procedures
DataFlow provides a layer of connectors that allow to interface the most popular databases such as DB2, Oracle, SQLServer, Excel. With these connectors it is then possible to separate the tasks from the scope of the processing (operational database, impromptu data in Excel format, data warehouse, etc.) allowing to define a modular and easily maintainable structure. It is also possible to foresee procedures that perform the extraction from a data base and the import on a different type, without the need for intermediate steps.
During debugging procedures, DataFlow displays graphically and in real time the task flows, their progress and possibly generated errors, allowing o focus on the actual data flow. This approach makes it easier and more intuitive the process of identification of problems and their resolution, even in extremely complex architectures.
Task scheduling
After the definition and testing of the tasks, DataFlow allows their fast scheduling, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, according to the specific needs. The scheduling relies on the Windows Task Scheduler, thus avoiding the need for additional services always running on the machine in production.
For the procedures in production, DataFlow provides a range of specific tools for task monitoring, such as on-screen display of messages, report generation with specific and customizable data on loading, sending messages and reports via email. DataFlow also allows to track everything that happens during loading, using configurable log files.