Fivetran expands SDK to simplify building custom data connectors

Fivetran has expanded its Connector SDK to enable custom connectors for any data source.

The update allows developers to build pipelines connecting even unique or internally developed systems, facilitating the centralisation of company data for analytics, artificial intelligence, and business decision-making.

With the Connector SDK, data teams now have the ability to build secure, reliable pipelines for a range of sources—from various applications and internal APIs to legacy systems. Developers write integration logic in Python, while Fivetran manages infrastructure elements such as deployment, orchestration, scaling, monitoring, and error handling. The process is designed to allow most connectors to be built and deployed within several hours, removing the need for DevOps support or dedicated infrastructure development.

Anjan Kundavaram, Chief Product Officer at Fivetran, discussed the approach companies often take when a prebuilt connector is unavailable. He stated: "When there isn't a prebuilt connector, most teams end up building and maintaining custom pipelines themselves. That DIY approach may seem flexible at first, but it often becomes a long-term burden with hidden costs in reliability, security, and maintenance. The Connector SDK changes that. Now, any engineer can build a custom connector for any source and run it with the same infrastructure, performance, and reliability as Fivetran's native connectors. It gives companies the flexibility they need without the tradeoffs."

The SDK offers the same infrastructure that supports Fivetran's managed connectors, handling automatic retries, monitoring, and alerting to ensure the accurate delivery of data to destinations such as BigQuery, Databricks, Snowflake, and other platforms.

Babacar Seck, Head of Data Integration at Saint-Gobain, shared his perspective on their experience with the Connector SDK. He said: "The SDK was a 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 — all while seamlessly delivering data into Snowflake on Azure."

The company noted that the Connector SDK is being demonstrated to the public, with a focus on allowing data engineers to build custom connectors for moving data into cloud destinations tailored for analytics and artificial intelligence workloads.

Fivetran is known for working with organisations across various industries, enabling them to centralise data from software-as-a-service applications, databases, files, and additional sources into cloud destinations such as data lakes. The company's approach emphasises high-performance pipelines, security, and interoperability to help organisations enhance or modernise their data infrastructure.