Today’s data teams are expected to deliver insights regardless of where the data lives. But when that data is locked inside internal systems, APIs, or platforms without standard Fivetran connectors, it can feel like an impossible task of DIY coding, infrastructure setup and maintenance, and peculiar replication logic. That’s why Fivetran developed our Connector SDK.
Designed to combine the flexibility of custom connections with the reliability and security of the Fivetran platform, the Connector SDK lets users build and maintain connectors for any and every data source while Fivetran manages the hosting and infrastructure. Whether you’re working with custom-built tools, industry-specific platforms, or internal APIs, the Connector SDK lets you access your data quickly, securely, and at scale.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the four most common use cases we have seen for the Fivetran Connector SDK — now in GA with over 180 customers replicating from 450+ different sources — so you can unlock data access across your entire technology stack.
1. Bring internal tools into your data strategy
Every organization relies on unique, internal systems that are essential for daily operations, such as databases tracking factory operations, staffing systems tracking workforce allocation, employee feedback and satisfaction applications, or monitoring tools ensuring uptime and security. However, these niche platforms often lack native integrations, leaving valuable data trapped in silos and inaccessible for broader analysis. Fivetran has no insight into or knowledge of these sources, but the Fivetran Connector SDK enables users to centralize data from these (and any) sources using a custom Fivetran connector into a destination for analytics.
This enables seamless and automated data extraction, centralizing critical operational data into your data warehouse or lake. By unifying data from internal tools with other datasets, your organization can create comprehensive analytics and reporting frameworks that provide real-time visibility, drive informed decision-making, and improve overall business efficiency.
2. Fill the gaps with custom connectors for unique systems
Even with hundreds of prebuilt Fivetran connectors for popular data sources, there are always tools and systems unique to your industry, business, or geography that don’t have a corresponding Fivetran connector. Nonetheless, whether they are legacy databases like Progress OpenEdge, specialized analytics platforms like Adobe Experience Platform, or collaboration tools like Smartsheet, these systems hold valuable data.
The Fivetran Connector SDK empowers users to build and deploy custom connectors for these platforms, bridging integration gaps without compromising on performance. Connectors built with the Connector SDK follow the same replication processes as Fivetran’s standard connectors, ensuring reliability, enterprise-grade security, orchestration, automatic retries, and failure recovery. This means your data teams can quickly and confidently bring all critical data into your analytics platform — no waiting for custom product development or workarounds.
3. Customize data movement for your organization’s needs
Customizing how data moves through your pipeline is critical for maintaining security, compliance, and usability, especially when dealing with complex business requirements or regulatory constraints. With the Fivetran Connector SDK, you can filter out sensitive data before it ever reaches your destination, map incoming data to match existing schemas, and apply customizations to format your data as needed. This level of control ensures that the right data is delivered in the right structure and is ready for your analytics teams and processes to use immediately.
Fivetran’s native connectors offer pre-defined schemas and a set order of operations. However, the Connector SDK now enables customers to augment Fivetran’s native connectors with custom connectors to sync additional fields and tables, such as the information schema tables in databases like Oracle and SQL Server or additional tables for Fivetran’s Lite Connectors. Based on regional data residency requirements, our users have also filtered out data in-flight from certain regions. These types of scenarios highlight the value of the Fivetran Connector SDK to extend your data replication operations and offer fine, granular control beyond pre-defined rules and connectors.
4. Quickly integrate internal APIs into your data stack
Many organizations rely on specialized platforms with unique APIs — where it is difficult to move data into an operational or analytical destination. With Fivetran’s Connector SDK, you can build custom connectors that tap directly into these proprietary or custom APIs.
Customers have already taken advantage of this capability, receiving transactional data from trading platforms and connecting data from IoT applications. This flexibility lets you sync critical data from any source into a database, data warehouse, or data lake, ensuring your valuable data is part of your analytical and operational workflows.
Real Connector SDK results: Saint-Gobain’s story
As part of its data modernization efforts, Saint-Gobain turned to Fivetran’s Connector SDK to streamline and simplify complex data integrations. The team used the Connector SDK to replace Azure Data Factory in several use cases, reducing infrastructure costs by an estimated €50,000.
With the Connector SDK, Saint-Gobain easily built connectors for specific needs, like pulling daily exchange rates from APIs or extracting Excel files from SharePoint, cutting build times from days to hours and accelerating time to insight.
“The SDK was a huge, huge surprise — in the best way. We expected to keep using Azure Data Factory for APIs because it was the only option. But once we saw what we could do with Fivetran’s Connector SDK, everything changed. We can now build custom connectors in-house and respond to business needs much faster.”
— Babacar Seck, Head of Data Integration at Saint-Gobain
Ready to build?
Whether you’re integrating niche systems, accessing custom APIs, or tailoring your pipelines to meet security and governance requirements, the Fivetran Connector SDK gives you the power to unlock data from every source. This flexibility ensures your data infrastructure is comprehensive, scalable, and tailored to your business.
By enabling seamless integration and automation across even the most complex or custom sources, the Fivetran Connector SDK empowers your teams to accelerate analytics, drive smarter decisions, and unlock the full potential of your data.
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