What benefits do we get from using ELT?

ELT (Extract‑Load‑Transform) offers several benefits over traditional ETL. First, data is loaded into the target system (often a data lake or warehouse) in its raw form, which speeds up the ingestion process and reduces latency. Second, transformations are performed using the target system’s compute engine (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery), allowing you to leverage powerful SQL engines, parallel processing, and on‑demand scaling. Third, ELT decouples the transformation logic from the ingestion pipeline, making it easier to iterate on data models without re‑extracting data. Fourth, it simplifies compliance and governance because raw data is retained for audit purposes. Finally, ELT aligns well with modern cloud architectures, where storage and compute are separate services, enabling cost‑effective, elastic data processing.