Think Business Intelligence! Think Ab Initio ETL!
In today's IT landscape, information is crucial. Any business, could be a startup or an established one, requires relevant data or information to make better business decisions, manage sales activities, perform operations efficiently, assess business performance, predict the future requirements and many other aspects. Nowadays, running a business, especially in IT industry, without proper business intelligence software is like walking in a dark room. In simple terms, Business Intelligence(BI) is the process of deriving a meaningful information or insights from raw data. In the recent years, BI has gained significance across the globe in many verticals. There are several BI tools available in the market such as OBIEE, SAP BI, Pentaho, Cognos, QlikView, Ab Initio and so on. Let us see what is so special about 'Ab Initio'.
Ab Initio Overview:
Ab Initio means 'from the beginning'. Ab Initio tool is a fourth generation data analysis, data manipulation and batch-processing graphical user interface(GUI)-based parallel processing product used to Extract, Transform and Load (ETL)data. This tool or software works with the client-server model. In brief, client is called 'Graphical Development Environment' and server is called 'Co-operating System', the co-operating system can stay in a Unix remote machine or mainframe machine.
Ab Initio is an array of applications consisting of various components, such as
Co-operating System
Graphical Development Environment (GDE)
Enterprise Meta Environment (EME)
Conduct It
Data Profiler and
Component Library
Ab Initio enables the user to drag and drop various components and attach them, quite connected to drawing. Let us understand what each component does to perform ETL actions.
Co-operating System :This operates on the top of operating system and is a basement for all Ab Initio processes. This component offers following features:
Run and manage ab initio graphs and control ETL processes.
ETL processes debugging and monitoring.
Ab initio extensions are provided to the operating system.
Provides interaction with the Enterprise Meta Environment (EME) and Metadata management.
Graphical Development Environment : This component helps developers in running and designing abinitio graphs.
Ab initio graphs represent ETL process in ab initio and are formed by components, data streams(flow) and parameter.
This provides an easy to use front-end application for designing ETL graphs.
It facilitates to run and debug ab initio jobs. It traces execution logs.
Compilation process of ab initio ETL graphs results from the information of UNIX shell script,which can be carried out without the installation of GDE.
Enterprise Meta Environment (EME):
This is an ab initio environment and repository used for storing and managing metadata.
It has the capability to store both technical and business metadata.
EME metadata can be accessed from the web browser, Ab initio GDE and Co operating system command line.
Conduct IT: This is an environment used for creating ab initio data integration systems. The prima focus of this environment is to create special type of graphs called ab initio plans. Ab initio provides both command-line and graphical interface to Conduct IT.
Data Profiler: This runs on top of co-operating system in graphic environment This is an analytical application which can determine data range, quality, distribution, variance and scope.
Future of Ab Initio ETL :
Ab Initio has emerged well with the technology and is still in the race as a fore-runner. If ab initio have been just an ETL tool, it might have been out of the race or may be cornered because of its price tag. Some fifty odd companies from fortune list use Ab initio as it is expensive and may not be prefered by small or medium sized corporations. But Ab initio is more than an ETL tool. In addition to the above mentioned components, Ab initio has other components such as metadata hub for managing metadata, BRE & ACE used for code enhancements with minimal coding, web services and continuous flow and much more in the ab initio basket makes it as a full-fledged metadata and data management tool.
Ab initio is heavily used by the data warehouse companies and the usage is growing by other verticals in the IT industry because of its powerful and multiple benefits. All the tools in the Ab initio are well integrated and easy to use and easy to learn by going through Ab initio training material which is another advantageous point. Ab initio is upgrading with the technology advancements like hadoop and big data providing a better interactive mechanisms and is constantly updating.
Kickstart for Ab Initio Aspirants :
Another good sign is the number of talents with ab initio as the skill has grown and has increased compared to the past. It would be a good start for beginners who are interested to build their careers in business intelligence and ETL platform as the companies with ab initio usage in the pipeline are facing skill shortage for future projects. So aspirants, ignite with Ab initio classroom or online training and give a better shape to your career. Below picture may give some idea of Ab initio jobs and what are the salaries offered to different job titles of Ab initio skill.
