What are the advantages of CDC?

CDC, or Change Data Capture, is a technique that records changes made to a database so that they can be replicated or processed elsewhere. The main advantages are:

1. Real‑time or near real‑time replication – changes are captured as they occur, enabling downstream systems to stay up‑to‑date with minimal latency.
2. Reduced load on the source – CDC reads only the transaction log or change stream instead of performing full table scans, which saves CPU, I/O, and network bandwidth.
3. Incremental data movement – only new or updated rows are transferred, which reduces the volume of data moved and speeds up downstream processing.
4. Auditability and traceability – the change log provides a record of what changed, when, and by whom, which is useful for compliance and debugging.
5. Flexibility in downstream use – captured changes can feed data warehouses, analytics pipelines, or real‑time dashboards without requiring a full ETL job.

Overall, CDC is ideal for scenarios where data freshness, efficiency, and minimal impact on the source system are critical.