# Matillion Architecture. Will matillion bring the data from source and target into matillion memory and process the data like most other ETL tools do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Matillion ETL\ **Created:** [May 9, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336 "2021-05-09T18:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DM163398](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@DM163398](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/DM163398)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336/1 "2021-05-09T18:08:43Z")
Will matillion bring the data from source and target into **matillion memory** and process the data like most other ETL tools do? Example : Say I want to join 2 tables, I extract data from 2 tables using 2 extract connector and using join stage I join two table and write the data into a target table. Does matillion ETL pulls the data **in memory** and perfom join and loads into target. ---
**Author:** ![Michael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Michael](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/Michael)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336/2 "2021-05-10T06:19:14Z")
Matillion is an **ELT** tool (not ETL): Data is **E** xtracted from the sources, **L** oaded to the target (cloud) DWH, and then **T** ransformed within that target platform. Matillion "just" generates SQL scripts and pushes them to the target platform. No data is pulled to the memory on the Matillion instance. ---
**Author:** ![DM163398](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@DM163398](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/DM163398)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 2:29am UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336/3 "2021-05-14T02:29:02Z")
Thanks For your response. When data gets transferred from On-prem to cloud (snowflake, Redshift etc) , Do the data come into matillion instance ? ---
**Author:** ![Michael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Michael](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/Michael)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 8:40am UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336/4 "2021-05-14T08:40:46Z")
I thank case, yes. The (JDBC) database driver connects to the on prem database from the Matillion instance. All data goes from the on prem DB to the Matillion instance and from there to the configured staging location (e.g., a S3 bucket if you are on Matillion for AWS). The cloud DWH (Snowflake/Redshift/...) loads all data from the staging location once the data is completely loaded to that location. ---
**Author:** ![DM163398](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@DM163398](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/DM163398)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/matillion-architecture-will-matillion-bring-the-data-from-source-and-target-into-matillion-memory-and-process-the-data-like-most-other-etl-tools-do/1336/5 "2021-05-16T15:26:10Z")
Thanks for the info