Staging
We need to consider a practical aspect to this process that is related to ETL, as well as to the structure in our target database. This practical aspect is the question of whether to stage the source data in a temporary location before performing the transformations on it and loading it into the target structure. Staging is the process of copying the source data temporarily into a table(s) in our target database. Here we can perform any transformations that are required before loading the source data into the final target tables. The source data could actually be copied to a table in another database that we create just for this purpose, but it doesn't have to be. This process involves saving data to storage at any step along the way to the final target structure, and it can incorporate a number of intermediate staging steps. The source and target designations will be affected during the intermediate steps of staging. So we'll need to decide on a staging strategy, if any, before...
