Getting started with Informatica and ETL

Question

I have started learning about Informatica for my project and needs some direction from the gurus here.

I need to connect to a remote datasource with Informatica, which will perform ETL process

the data will need to be extracted from the datasouce, mapping which will pulled certain fields / columns to the target

the target will be a CSV file which the mapped fields will populate the CSV file.

Here is my question,

Is the tool Informatica PowerCenter Developer? If that is not the correct tool, what is the correct tool and where can I download it.

I read that I can use Queries to join the tables in the remote source, correct? When the data is extracted from the source, does it needs to be save or dumped somewhere? a table? Most important, can I dump the mapped data into a CSV file?

Thanks and really appreciate your help

Answer 1

Informatica is a ETL (Extract Transform Load) tool which is used to extract data from heterogeneous sources-->transform (clean ,validate)-->Load into heterogeneous targets

You can also join heterogeneous sources (like oracle table can be joined with SQL server etc.,)

Sources : Oracle, SQL server, MYSQL, Mainframes, DB2, Flat files, CSV , Excel etc.,

Targets : Oracle, SQL server, MYSQL, Mainframes, DB2, Flat files, CSV , Excel etc.,

When you are working with informatica no need to dump the data any where , the tool will take care of the necessary backend tasks. We just need to make sure proper ODBC and relational connections are created

The tool name is Informatica Power Center. The latest version is 10 but its not currently available for free download. You can try informatica 9.5.1

Go to Oracle software delivery cloud

https://edelivery.oracle.com/osdc

Register and then search for informatica software. Proper steps need to be followed while installing informatica

Regards

raj

Answer 2

Powercenter is not the faint-hearted and can be very difficult to install if you are not familiar with Informatica.

Alternatively, you might want to consider the cloud-based edition which is easier to get up and running with than Powercenter. It also has a free trial.

Cloud uses the same engine in the background. You configure all your connections and mappings in the online tool and the actual processing is carried out by a "secure agent" run time which can be installed behind your firewall.

It comes with numerous pre-packaged integrations with ERP platforms such Salesforce, WorkDay and PeopleSoft as well as numerous databases (e.g. SQL, MySql, Oracle) and generic formats\protocols (XML, JSON, REST, SOAP, FTP, etc).

IMHO the Cloud edition is a great fit for simpler integration scenarios - pretty much like the ones you describe.

More info: https://www.informatica.com/cloud.html