Introduction to ELT with CloudQuery — a declarative data integration framework for developers

CloudQuery is an open-source ELT framework designed for developers to facilitate data integration by moving data from various source systems to target destinations using a declarative approach through YAML configurations. Initially conceived as a cloud asset inventory tool, CloudQuery evolved into a broader ELT framework after recognizing the need for a robust engine to centralize and query data across multiple cloud use cases such as security, compliance, and financial management. The platform supports a wide range of out-of-the-box and custom plugins written in languages compatible with Apache Arrow and gRPC, while also offering CloudQuery Hub, a managed service for efficient plugin hosting. Although it lacks the extensive connector library of competitors like Fivetran or Airbyte, its open-source nature allows users to contribute additional plugins, enhancing its versatility. CloudQuery's stateless design allows for flexible deployment across local, cloud, or server environments, and it can be integrated with Kestra for orchestrated, scheduled data syncs, as demonstrated in a use case involving data from the Hacker News API to DuckDB.