When (& Why) You Should Use Change Data Capture

Change Data Capture (CDC) is a set of technologies that identify and capture data changes in databases, allowing for later action. Two key use cases for CDC are streaming data to a data warehouse and event-driven architectures. In the first case, CDC can improve ETL or ELT processes by continuously streaming data from primary databases to data warehouses, reducing load spikes, network provisioning needs, and delayed business decisions. In the second use case, CDC helps maintain consistency between service boundaries in event-driven architectures through the Outbox Pattern, which avoids complicated application logic and ensures message delivery. Other potential use cases for CDC include streaming updates to search indexes, analytics, anomaly detection, and online data stores for machine learning models.