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Qlik ETL Explained: Pricing, Tools, Pros & Cons

Ethan
CEO, Portable

What is Qlik?

Qlik is a software company with expertise in executive dashboards and data visualization. It is a popular business intelligence product that delivers a data analytics platform.

Qlik is known for its two primary products -- Qlik Sense and Qlik Replicate. Both of these tools are useful in data integration and business intelligence. It is suitable for keeping good data lakes.

What is the difference between an ETL Tool and a Data Warehouse? 

ETL refers to Extract, Transform, and Load. ETL is one of the main steps in data warehousing. The task of an ETL tool is simple to understand. The first step is to take out data from many sources. The second task is to transform data. It basically loads the data into the data warehouse system. 

Data warehouses are different. A data warehouse is where all the data within a company is present. The data is from many sources after an ETL tool processing. The warehouse helps make big management decisions for the organization. It acts as a platform of information and data. Thus, later it can help the company make a better and more informed decision. It helps save time from time-consuming tasks.

What is a Data Integration vs. ETL Tool? 

There are a lot of questions that people have about data integration versus the ETL tool. Data integration is about creating a combined result of all the data from many sources. Taking data from many sources and then bringing it together in one place is data integration. 

The role of an ETL tool is to extract, transform, and load data into the data system -- which is typically a data warehouse like Snowflake.

ETL vs. ELT

ETL stands for extract, transfer, and load. It can be helpful when managing smaller and relational data sets. The processing that needs complex transformation is perfect for ETL code. But ELT refers to extract, load, and transfer. Also, it is OK to manage data with ELT. It can handle data of any size and type. Also, it is perfect for processing structured and unstructured data.

Is Qlik a Data Warehouse? 

Yes, Qlik is a data warehouse. You can create a complete data model. Qlik, as a data warehouse, has many benefits. The speed and the response of the product are fast. Also, there is a negligible risk of errors that keeps you safe. 

Qlik has many abilities that can assist you as a data warehouse. It can go to different sources as inputs and confirms strong links between the tables. The load time gets less, and the output you get is more.

Is Qlik an ETL Tool? 

There is a tool called Qlik compose. Therefore yes, Qlik is an ETL tool. Qlik composes beneficial for the ETL automation process and works as an ETL tool. Thus, it is one of the prominent ETL tools available. There are many benefits of Qlik as an ETL tool. It can relieve you from manual coding. Hence, there is a reduction in errors to a large extent.

- Qlik Compose: Qlik Compose is unique for the present times. It delivers you ETL automation service. The service helps maintain an agile data warehouse. It assists you in data warehouse design and development. Besides that, it is helpful for testing, managing change, and deploying your tools. It helps you take time out for essential activities by taking you off manual tasks. You will not have to do those repeating tasks again and again. 

- Qlik Data Manager: Qlik Data Manager is a tool in Qlik Sense. It helps the user to define the data of use. The devices can assist you in selecting what data you want to use in the Qlik app. The next step is to model the data pipeline and transform it to get the best use of it.

- Qlik Sense: Qlik Sense is one application that lets you create visuals. You can also make dashboards and charts. How will it help? It helps make decisions that matter. The charts will represent the complex data for you to understand. It plays a significant role in mainframe computers.

- Qlik Replicate: Qlik Replicate is a prominent database replication software. It allows you to boost the speed of database replication. It is also beneficial in taking-in big data and then streaming the same. You can perform data replication on many different databases. One good thing is smooth data replication, even on the cloud platform. 

- Qlik Data Integration: Data integration combines all the data to bring something valuable. It helps in real-time data streaming, processing, and publishing of the final report. The benefit it gives is vast. You can find the primary data ready. It saves a lot of time for you here. It prepares you well with real-time data and to face the new world. 

Advantages of using Qlik ETL 

There are many advantages you get using Qlik ETL. Here are the three main ones that we will discuss. 

  • The first benefit that you get is a reduction in dependence. You will not have to depend on developmental resources. 

  • The second thing is the automation of workflow. Qlik ETL itself generates data and keeps an end-to-end flow of work. It includes steps like taking in the information and making the final report. 

  • The third is about the management of data marts. The tool helps you in managing and define data marts without doing the coding yourself. 

Disadvantages of using Qlik ETL 

There are some limitations too that you get using the Qlik ETL tool. What are these? Here are the three main rules present with the Qlik ETL tool.

  • Qlik ETL sometimes presents limited data extraction capabilities. Taking out data for further use can be challenging in some scenarios. 

  • You will also see some limitations in the presence of charts. The need for more basic charts poses limited visuals. 

  • The solution of data slows down when you input large data sets. 

When to use a dedicated ETL Tool?

ETL tools are the first ladder to make a data warehouse. The role of a dedicated ETL tool is to convert complex data into an accessible format. It helps data scientists to comprehend the data. You can convert large data silos into betters ones to analyze them well. The output is the time reduction in your decision-making. Also, it turns raw data into something meaningful. IT teams find these tools helpful.

Many ETL tools are present in the market. These include SSIS, azure, amazon redshift, and many more. Here are the top three that you should know.

Portable

You are going to find Portable useful in long-tail data sources. It has connectors for more than 300 data sources. The team is fast, responsive, and supportive. You'll get the connectors that Fivetran doesn't have available.

Oracle

Oracle is another good tool for ETL services. It has complete integration with Oracle's ecosystem of devices. Moreover, Oracle has machine learning and AI capacities. It also performs CDC (change data capture).

Microsoft

You can map data without the sharp learning curve. The company has many data services in the tool list. It also delivers a pay-as-you-go service.