analytics-dictionary / term / data infrastructure

Idempotency

An idempotent process gives the same result no matter how many times it runs.

Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026

In data pipelines it means a failed or repeated run does not create duplicates or corrupt tables. It is typically achieved with merge or overwrite logic and unique keys.

It is what makes retries and backfills safe.

Backfill Data orchestration Data quality

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Columnar storage

Columnar storage stores data by column rather than by row, which makes analytical queries much faster.

row-level-security.md

Row-level security

Row-level security restricts which rows of a table a user can see, based on who they…

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Reverse ETL

Reverse ETL sends modelled data from the warehouse back into operational tools such as CRMs and…

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Materialized view

A materialized view stores the precomputed result of a query, so reports read it quickly instead…

olap.md

OLAP

OLAP (online analytical processing) systems are built for fast analysis of large volumes of historical data.

fivetran.md

Fivetran

Fivetran is a managed ELT service with connectors for many SaaS tools and databases.

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