Last updated on May 1st, 2023 at 10:15 am
The significance of data engineering and scalable data pipelines cannot be emphasised enough as organisations of all kinds continue to amass massive volumes of data. In order to derive insights and make educated choices, businesses need reliable means of storing, processing, and analysing their data.
The development of machine learning and the explosion of available data has made the creation of scalable data pipelines an essential part of data engineering. This blog will go into the basics of data engineering, revealing helpful tips for constructing scalable and reliable data pipelines to fuel machine learning in Python.
So, if you're interested in learning how to handle data and unleash the full potential of data engineering, keep reading.
What is data engineering?
Data engineering is the process of planning, constructing, and maintaining the infrastructure and systems required to store, process, and analyse massive quantities of data. Data engineering's purpose is to provide quick, trustworthy, and scalable data access for the purpose of transforming raw data into actionable insights that fuel business value.
When it comes to making decisions based on data, no company can do without the solid groundwork that data analysis and data engineering provides.
Distributed computing systems, data storage and retrieval systems, and data pipelines are just a few examples of the solutions that must be developed in order to handle big data.
What is a data pipeline?
The term "data pipeline" refers to a series of operations that gather information from diverse resources, alter it as needed, and then transfer it to another system for processing. In data engineering, data pipelines are often used to automate the gathering, processing, and integration of huge amounts of data from a variety of sources.
Often, data pipelines consist of numerous stages or components that collaborate to transfer data from source systems to destination systems. These steps may involve data intake, data preparation, data transformation, data validation, data loading, and data storage. The components used at each pipeline level rely on the use case's unique needs.
How to build a scalable data pipeline?
Collect and store the data:
First, you need to find the data you want to analyse and then save it somewhere. As a result, it may be necessary to gather information from a variety of databases, application programming interfaces (APIs), or even human data input. After the data sources have been located, the data must be consolidated into a single repository for easy access by the pipeline. Data warehouses, data lakes, and even flat files are all common places to save information.
Extract and process the data:
After the data has been gathered in one place, it must be extracted and processed before it can be used to build the pipeline. It might entail cleaning, filtering, summing, or merging data from many sources. When data is extracted, it must be converted into a format that the pipeline can use.
Data is mainly processed using two different techniques:
- Stream processing: A data processing approach that includes continually processing data as it enters, without storing it beforehand. This method is often used for real-time applications that need data to be handled as soon as it is created. In stream processing, data is processed in micro-batches, or small increments, allowing for real-time data analysis.
- Batch processing: Refers to a method of data processing in which huge amounts of data are processed simultaneously, at predetermined intervals. Applications that need to analyse huge amounts of data over time but do not need real-time analysis might benefit from batch processing. The data in a batch processing job is often processed by a group of computers concurrently, which results in short processing times.
Load the data:
After data extraction and transformation, the data must be loaded into the pipeline. To do this, the data may need to be loaded into a memory cache or a distributed computing framework like Apache Spark. The information has to be easily accessible so that it may be analysed.
Designing the data pipeline architecture:
Lay up a plan for the data pipeline's architecture before you start with the development process. Data processing pipelines have an architecture that specifies its parts such as a source, collector, processing engine, scheduler and more. These parts determine how information moves in the pipeline, and how that information is handled.
To guarantee the pipeline is scalable, resilient to errors, and straightforward to maintain, its architecture must be thoroughly thought out.
Developing the data pipeline:
Developing the data pipeline is the next stage after deciding on the pipeline's design. Executing this requires setting up the data processing logic, integrating the pipeline parts, and implementing the pipeline components. At this stage, testing the pipeline is also performed to guarantee it operates as planned.
Monitor and optimise performance:
After the pipeline is up and running, it's time to start keeping tabs on how well it's doing. Checking for problems, such as bottlenecks or slowdowns, is part of pipeline monitoring.
Improving pipeline throughput may be achieved by making small changes to individual components, modifying the data processing algorithm, or replacing hardware. In order to maintain peak pipeline performance and maximise data processing efficiency, it is essential to constantly monitor and tune the pipeline.
Conclusion
Data engineering and building scalable data pipelines are crucial components of data analysis and decision-making in today's business landscape. As data continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to have the skills and knowledge to handle it efficiently.
If you're keen on pursuing a career in this field, consider enrolling in Imarticus's Certificate Program in Data Science and Machine Learning, created with iHUB DivyaSampark at IIT Roorkee. This programme will teach you everything you need to advance in the fields of data science and machine learning.
Take advantage of the opportunity to get knowledge from seasoned professionals in your field while also earning a certification from a prominent university such as IIT. Sign up for the IIT data science course right now and take the first step towards a successful and satisfying career in data engineering.
