ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load—a foundational data integration process that pulls data from one or more sources, cleanses and reforms it according to business rules, and then loads it into a centralized target system such as a data warehouse or data lake. This workflow ensures that incoming data is structured, accurate, and optimized for analysis or further processing. ETL enables enterprises to consolidate diverse datasets into a consistent format, facilitating reliable reporting, analytics, compliance, and downstream AI applications—making it a critical building block in modern data infrastructure.
