Activations Overview

Activations is a cloud-based product that enables you to configure managed, automated reverse ETL pipelines without writing code. It activates data from a centralized source of truth, such as a data warehouse, and delivers insights directly into the business tools where your teams make decisions. When paired with Fivetran’s ELT capabilities, Activations enables you to have a bidirectional, end-to-end data pipeline.

Its architecture follows a hub-and-spoke model, with your data source serving as the central hub and each activation connecting independently. This design simplifies maintenance by creating standard, reusable datasets that can be monitored in one place while being shared with many destinations.

In addition, Activations provides self-service data enrichment capabilities that allow you to extend datasets while maintaining consistency and control. Learn more in our Smart Columns documentation.

Reverse ETL and data activation

Activations uses reverse ETL (extract, transform, load) to activate data from data storage systems into your business tools.

Reverse ETL (also called rETL) is the process of replicating data from centralized data storage, such as a data warehouse or data lake, and syncing it into business tools like CRMs, marketing platforms, and other SaaS applications. It reverses the direction that data flows in a traditional ETL or ELT data pipeline. rETL is a core tool for data activation because it moves your data into your business tools.

Data activation is the process of broadcasting the data you've centralized, transformed, processed, and approved to all the services that can make it actionable. When you activate data, you transform it into a format that your internal teams can understand and surface it within the tools they already use.

Together, rETL and data activation bridge the gap between stored data and business outcomes by delivering actionable information into the systems where you already work and make decisions.

How it works

In simple terms, Activations connects to your activation source, receives data from it, and replicates it to your activation destination.

Within your activation source, you define which data you want us to replicate by creating a dataset or a segment, which is a subset of records in a dataset. Activations connects to your activation source through a least-privilege account, so we only see the data you allow us to.

The first sync replicates all of your chosen data from your activation source to your activation destination. Subsequent syncs update only new or modified data. Activations uses a dedicated census schema in your activation source warehouse to track sync state and identify new or changed records. Learn more about activation syncs in our Syncs documentation.

Throughout the sync process, your data remains inside your activation destination instead of our servers for improved security and efficiency. Learn more in the Activations Security & Privacy documentation.