Friendly Intro to Y42

One-stop for all your ETL processes. By Sanu Maharjan

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

Back in the day, Microsoft Excel used to be the main weapon for data analytics. As data started to become increasingly complex, so did the whole data analysis process. This process included extracting data from multiple sources (i.e. from your Google and Facebook ads, Amazon, Shopify, Influencer marketing analytics, etc.), and then storing all that data in a secure location. On top of that, managing and analysing data becomes more cumbersome when data vary in format. Should we then be using Excel as our main data analytics tool? The thing is when working with large datasets, using more advanced platforms can make a significant difference in your workflow and end results.

With this idea in mind, we want to introduce you to an alternative solution for the data ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) process. Specifically, we present to you a platform that enables you to import data from different sources, transform and model this data using drag-and-drop pipelines or SQL queries, if coding is your preference; and then visualize and analyse your results. We’re talking about one of the fastest-growing platforms in the data analytics field — Y42

How can Y42 help you?

The data analysis process usually begins with importing all the necessary data, then cleaning and refining, analyzing, and finally visualizing it. This is a one-time data analysis process, but what if the data is continuously growing? For example, if you are working on an online shop, each customer order is a separate data row. Your data will change whenever there is a new order. It would be a waste of time needing to repeat the whole data process whenever there is a new addition to the data source. Therefore, taking the extra step of automating the entire data flow is key. In the end, you would ideally have an automated system for the entire ETL process.

Y42 has got you covered when it comes to this process, as it is an all-in-one data platform that comprises 5 different layers: Integrate, Model, Orchestrate, Visualize and Automate. Once you log in to Y42, you can see all the functionalities you need on the left navigation bar. It doesn’t get simpler than that.

Now, let’s briefly explore the different layers this platform has:

Integrate

When doing data analytics, the first step to take is gathering all of the data from its different sources; Y42 calls this Integrate. In fact, Y42 has over 100+ integrations to choose from. When it comes to Marketing & Sales platforms, some of the integrations available are Amazon Advertising, Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, Instagram, Shopify, TikTok Ads, and many more. As for Databases, Y42 connects with Google BigQuery, Microsoft Azure SQL Database, MySQL, and Oracle. Lastly, spreadsheets are also accessible in just a few clicks, such as CSV, Excel, and Google Sheets,

Model

Once all the data has been imported, the next step is modeling. This is where the fun really begins. Here you can clean and transform the data in a very simple and easy-to-understand drag-and-drop pipeline format.

Want to JOIN two tables? Drag-and-drop it. Use CASE conditions? Drag-and-drop it. Extract JSON? You get the idea. Almost everything can be done without writing any code.

However, if you are more comfortable with typing out your own codes like I am, then let me tell you that Y42 is already one step ahead of you. There is an option where you can write down your beautiful SQL codes and preview them as well.

We’ll talk more in detail about the different modeling layer elements and how to clean and transform data in upcoming blog posts keep an eye out for them.

Visualize

Integrating and modeling your data is necessary to be able to draw actionable insights from it, but looking at a large set of numbers doesn’t provide us with any helpful information on its own. It’s more interesting to look at how data can tell us a story in a visual and graphical way so that we can understand the meaning behind the numbers.

You can make all sorts of graphs and charts directly from the data you just cleaned in the Visualize section. The graphs developed by Y42 are interactive as well, meaning, you can filter the data by clicking on it, which I personally think is very time-efficient.

Here is an example of a multiple bar diagram to showcase the spending for different Google AdWords and Shopping Ads from a fictional online shop.

Automate

After completing the extraction, transformation, and visualization steps, it is considered best practice to save all the cleaned data in some kind of tabular format. There are different ways you can store your data and Y42 provides the best solutions: Google Bigquery (highly recommended option), Excel, Amazon S3, CSV, or Google Sheets. With a few clicks, you can already save your data in different formats and secure them.

Orchestrate

As stated earlier, automation is a very important step to take in the data analysis process, especially with data that is evolving over time. Luckily, Y42 developed a very easy solution to this matter. You can get the full picture of your automation in a pipeline structure. Y42 has also made it possible to choose between refreshing the data every single minute, hour, or day.

Conclusion

To summarise, the data analysis journey with Y42 begins with an unorganized dataset and ends with a dashboard containing all the required KPIs. In addition, your data flows are automatically updated and all of this can be achieved in a very user-friendly interface within Y42. In the next blog post, we will talk more about how to use this platform to its fullest potential.

Further Links

This post is part of the Y42 series from datadice and the series gives you detailed information on different features in Y42.

If you think that Y42 could be an attractive solution to your data problems, be sure to get in touch with them.

Check out our LinkedIn account, to get insights into our daily working life and get important updates about BigQuery, Data Studio, and marketing analytics

We also started with our own YouTube channel. We talk about important DWH, BigQuery, Data Studio, and many more topics. Check out the channel here.

If you want to learn more about how to use Google Data Studio and take it to the next level in combination with BigQuery, check our Udemy course here.

Have trouble setting up an ETL Pipeline on Y42 or if you are looking for help to set up a modern and cost-efficient data warehouse or analytical dashboards in general, send us an email to hello@datadice.io and we will schedule a call.