Over the last year or so, we have worked extensively with Google Cloud’s premier offering, BigQuery. BigQuery was built because no traditional technologies at the time could perform fast enough to support Google Maps. It will be a key component of cloud business intelligence and big data solutions very soon. As a super fast API that works as an analytical database, BigQuery is such a different animal that we can’t help but continue to be fascinated with it.
7 fascinating things about Google BigQuery:
1. Ingests while serving data
BigQuery is read-only like other analytical databases. However,what differentiates it is that it can be fed data at the same time that it is ingesting data into a database. As such, multiple partitions are not needed.
2. Auto-optimization
Contributing to its mesmerizing speed is auto-optimization. BigQuery does not require the constant maintenance of indexes, as it stores data in a columnar-like structure. This makes processing data shockingly fast. It is amazing how it “just works”.
3. No size limits
The database size has no limit. This means that it can be as big as you need, which is just unheard of. We have tried this and it can easily handle terabytes of data. You can store all the data your business needs without impacting performance. This also means there are no servers or hard drives to manage.
4. SQL-like queries, easy to use/adopt
BigQuery uses a SQL-like query syntax? Yes. It is as easy to use as writing a simple select query. Given that SQL is widely used, this will open the door for more people to interact with BigQuery.
5: Ease of management
A simple cloud console allows you to manage the database objects like tables and views, but most important, you can secure the data assets within the data sets. Jobs history allows you to manage database updates, status, and/or errors.
6. Nested json, support for complex schemas
Don’t be fooled in thinking that something so fast can only handle extremely simple schemas. It actually supports nested json. BigQuery allows ingestion of the most complex structures, that are exposed via today's common web services.
7. Super fast
It can analyze billions of records in seconds, not minutes or hours or days like other databases.
Bimotics automates the ingestion process further making Google BigQuery and Bimotics a great combination. If this sounds too good to be true, reach out to Bimotics. In just a few minutes, we will be happy to show you a demo of these amazing capabilities!