What Is DBT and Why Is It So Popular - Intro To Data Infrastructure Part 3

What Is dbt?

Built by Fishtown Analytics (now dbt Labs), the data build tool or dbt allows data analysts, data engineers and analytics engineers to execute the “transform“ step in the Extract-Load-Transform pipeline.

They can do this by writing transforms in SQL and executes it against its company’s database.

Dubbed as the “analytics engineering tool,” dbt is also open source and has become a regular part of the modern data stack of many companies. It also has had a solid support community formed around it.

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What Is The Modern Data Stack - Intro To Data Infrastructure Part 1

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Tags: Data engineering projects, Data engineer project ideas, data project sources, data analytics project sources, data project portfolio

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About me:
I have spent my career focused on all forms of data. I have focused on developing algorithms to detect fraud, reduce patient readmission and redesign insurance provider policy to help reduce the overall cost of healthcare. I have also helped develop analytics for marketing and IT operations in order to optimize limited resources such as employees and budget. I privately consult on data science and engineering problems both solo as well as with a company called Acheron Analytics. I have experience both working hands-on with technical problems as well as helping leadership teams develop strategies to maximize their data.

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[TheElectrocar]

DBT was a game change for our tableau workbooks. Our tableau workbooks were taking sometimes up to 1-2 minutes to fully load. Once our data engineers added DBT to the mix, the tableau workbooks were taking 3-5 seconds to load. I am not fully sure how all this was done by our data engineers but it was straight up voodoo magic and our end users loved it. Bonus is it made us look good to our 3rd partners who said even their own data team's reports were taking minutes to fully load.

[michaelperry]

Wholly goodness thank you. I've been learning dbt as a Software Engineer and have been trying to figure out why it matters at all. This video helped a ton!

[RockTrembath]

Thanks! I have been sleeping under a rock for two years - appreciate you helping me get up to speed 🙂

[akashsingh]

Awesome Video. 2 years later and DBT has grown even larger.

[victorberishaj]

Great video, and the Discord sound got me good at 0:57

[amitesh-rai]

dbt is a great tool. I would really love to see a video from you comparing Prefect, Dagster, and Airflow and how they fit into modern data stack.

[KahanDataSolutions]

Loving your channel and this video. I had a similar start with data pipelines and to me dbt feels like somebody took the frustrations I had with those GUI ETL tools and packaged it up into a better, modern product. Writing code is more fun anyway (IMO). Keep up the great vids!

[HVjugo]

We use airflow + DBT in most of our projects now, it's such a good tool

[nylarch]

dbt is a game changer - it can help create a cultural change where people actually like working with data teams because they see lineage, quality and quick turnarounds built into the system. Highly recommended!!!

[yusufs]

Great video as always Ben! Thank you for consistently providing us with value.

[andrelsjunior]

You always know what I want to watch. LOL
startdataengineering is 🔥🔥

[alexanderpotts]

dbt was a breath of fresh air from ssis. I still think ssis was great for its time and still a usable tool in some places. sometimes I miss it... sometimes.

[vladimirdinolov]

It's about time! Excited to watch this.

I was thinking how can achive alone to break into DE field. Then I came across with your letters, youtube and then discord channel. Now I don't feel alone. Amazing contents. Thank you !

[javiereduardochaconarevalo]

I always struggle remembering that DBT is not only acronym for Dialectical Behavior Therapy

[metaller_alex]

In my mind, "disadvantage 3" is actually advantage. I follow UNIX philosophy : Do One Thing and Do It Well.

[alexanderlin]

If you want to actually know what's DBT, fast forward to 4:20. But, if you already know a little bit DBT and just want to find more advance information, you can skip this whole video.

[avimehenwal]

very high quality content. Helped me understand some long running doubts I had. Thankyou for sharing

[coding]

How would dbt replace adf when there to E AND L in dbt? Who’s gonna extract and load data into the warehouse for dbt to be able to transform it?

[datasqlai]

I can correlate with your journey. Started off with using DTS in SQL 2000 and using SSIS first time with SQL server 2005 :)