An area of software development that could be beneficial to many utilities is Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) systems, which could help companies transform their analytics as the new business environment requires.
As utilities capture more data from all over their area of operations, in all sorts of different formats, it often gets siloed and becomes inaccessible to people who might find it beneficial. ETL systems are geared to ensuring that this information is not buried, but can be retrieved for use. ETL systems obtain data from a variety of sources and then combine it in a single data repository that workers and management can get access to. This means people can get comprehensive view of what is going on. This enables them to make better and more informed decisions.
ETL tools take the original data, convert it, and store it in a new repository, so it can be accessed immediately. The software can be on company computers or in the cloud, depending on the ICT department's preference.
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Some popular ETL tools:
Amazon AWS Glue
AWS Glue works well for companies that use SQL databases, AWS and Amazon S3 storage services. AWS Glue enables users to load, clean, validate, and organize data from a wide variety of sources into a data lake or a data warehouse. The tool integrates well with other AWS systems and processes, so if AWS is your primary data repository and processor, then it is likely that you will want to add this to your existing setup.
Windows Azure Data Factory
Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based ETL tool that automatically scales processing and storage to meet data and processing demands. It is user-friendly, in that it can be used by both IT professionals and non-techie personnel. This is because the tool has both a simple graphical user interface together with a code-based interface for software professionals. It is a reliable system for companies that are already Microsoft-based.
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ETL Tools for In-house computing:
IBM InfoSphere DataStage
InfoSphere DataStage is a tool from the IBM Information Server Platform. It uses a client and server design where tasks are created and administered via a Windows client using a central repository on a server. This server can either be Intel-based, UNIX-based, LINUX-based or an IBM mainframe so it will benefit those companies which already use those systems.
There are also various open source, non-proprietary systems such as Talend and Pentaho.
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Summary
Data integration can be a difficult challenge for ICT teams. ETL tools can help companies to move data from system to system and between data repositories. These different kinds of data tools can meet the needs of enterprises with complex data and system integration needs as well as benefiting smaller companies that have simpler needs and lower budgets. As the energy grid gets more complex to operate, ETL systems will be a vital part of the ICT infrastructure.