What is aggregation at source and when should it be used?

< 1 min read

Aggregation at source means summarizing data in the database before loading it into the reporting tool.
In one project, instead of loading transaction-level sales data, we aggregated it by month and region in a SQL view.
This reduced the dataset size significantly.
It improved dashboard load time and refresh performance.
It is useful when detailed data is not required for analysis.
For executive dashboards, aggregated KPIs are usually sufficient.
It also reduces memory consumption in the BI layer.
So it should be used when working with large datasets and high-level reporting needs.

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