AWS Database Migration Service vs. dbt

As stated previously, AWS Database Migration Service excels when replicating very specific data elements between environments. AWS Database Migration Service handles replication tasks to load equipment assets or customer job sites from production to QA databases very well. Full load replication - e.g., we need an exact copy of the production database in another region - works well. But when we need to load the QA database with the latest production data - it does work as well. AWS Database Migration Service comes up short because we do not want to wipe the QA database completely and make an exact copy. We want to keep what's already in the QA database and add production data so that we can QA with that level of volume. And at least with our database design, we end up having to do a lot of manual data manipulation and de-duplication.

Incentivized

If you can load your data first into your warehouse, dbt is excellent. It does the T(ransformation) part of ELT brilliantly but does not do the E(xtract) or L(oad) part. If you know SQL or your development team knows SQL, it's a framework and extension around that. So, it's easy to learn and easy to hire people with that technical skill (as opposed to specific Informatica, SnapLogic, etc. experience). dbt uses plain text files and integrates with GitHub. You can easily see the changes made between versions. In GUI-based UIs it was always hard to tell what someone had changed. Each "model" is essentially a "SELECT" statement. You never need to do a "CREATE TABLE" or "CREATE VIEW" - it's all done for you, leaving you to work on the business logic. Instead of saying "FROM specific_db.schema.table" you indicate "FROM ref('my_other_model')". It creates an internal dependency diagram you can view in a DAG. When you deploy, the dependencies work like magic in your various environments. They also have great documentation, an active slack community, training, and support. I like the enhancements they have been making and I believe they are headed in a good direction.

Incentivized

• user experience makes it easy to work with SQL and version control
• customer success team and the dbt (data build tool) community help establish best practices
• thorough and clear documentation

• Slow load times of the dbt cloud environment (they're working on it via a new UI though)
• More out-of-the-box solutions for managing procedures, functions, etc would be nice to have, but honestly, it's pretty easy to figure out how to adapt dbt macros

Incentivized

Most ETL pipeline products have a T layer, but dbt just does it better. The transformation is on steroids compared to the others. Also, just allows much more Adhoc solutions for very specific projects. Those ETL tools are probably better on the T part if you don't need too many transforms - also dbt is pretty much free dependent on how you work it, also extremely scalable.

Incentivized

• Set it and forget it for maintaining data consistency - moderate cost, zero to minimal maintenance
• High touch production data loads into QA - negative ROI engineering time investment far exceeded our predictions

Incentivized

• Simplified our BI layer for faster load times
• Increased the quality of data reaching our end users
• Makes complex transformations manageable

Incentivized