Modernizing Data Transformations with dbt by Dustin Dorsey and Gerald Hartley

Session Title: Modernizing Data Transformations with dbt
Speaker(s): Dustin Dorsey & Gerald Hartley

Abstract: Data Build Tool (dbt) is a free and easy to use data transformation tool that is exploding in popularity, transforming the landscape of data and analytics platforms across the world. The Transformation (T) step in your Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) process can often be seen a bottleneck, requiring specialized skills, rigorous testing and an extensive deployment process to handle even minor changes. Dbt focuses on the Transformation step, making it super easy to transform data already in your database or data warehouse. No specialized skills required; all you need with dbt is to write a SELECT statement. In other words, dbt takes the SQL skills that data analysts are already comfortable with and enables them to build their own analytics engineering workflows. This session is intended for anyone new to dbt who wants to know if it is right fit for their organization. We will cover the dbt viewpoint, the fundamental uses of the tool, and demo several features so that you can get started right away creating automated analytics engineering workflows.