16.3. What is BigQuery?
A preferred solution for many reasons
BigQuery is not the only solution for large-scale data management, as there are other options like Amazon Redshift and Microsoft Azure. However, it has become a popular choice due to its compatibility with other Google tools and its scalability.
Part of the Google Cloud Platform
BigQuery is a part of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which offers a wide range of tools for storage, computing, machine learning, and big data processing. Among these tools, BigQuery stands out as an ideal option for petabyte-scale data warehousing.
Advantages of BigQuery
Fully managed and scalable
You don't need to worry about setting up hardware or maintaining infrastructure when using BigQuery. It's fully managed by Google and scales effortlessly based on your usage.
Cost-efficient
With BigQuery, you only pay for what you use. Plus, there's a generous free quota that allows you to work with your data without incurring additional costs.
Reliable and secure
BigQuery runs on Google's infrastructure, ensuring reliability and security. Additionally, you can control access with granularity and audit user activities.
Benefits of using BigQuery with Looker Studio
Full data ownership
Storing your data in BigQuery gives your organization complete ownership over it. You can retain it as long as needed and analyze it without any limitations.
Flexible pricing model
You pay only for the amount of data stored in BigQuery and the amount processed during analysis or queries. To learn more about pricing details, visit our BigQuery pricing lesson.
No volume or processing limits
BigQuery can handle tables of virtually any size without imposing processing limits.
Powerful data modeling tools
Take advantage of SQL functions, T-SQL procedures, user-defined values/functions, and even machine learning capabilities through BigQuery ML.
Seamless integration with Looker Studio
Easily connect Looker Studio to your BigQuery tables for effortless visualization and exploration.
Accessible machine learning
BigQuery ML makes it easy for non-data scientists to work with machine learning models.
World-class security
Ensure your data is secure with identity and access management logs, audit trails, and more.
Extremely fast reporting
BigQuery's BI Engine provides sub-second querying and analysis from within Looker Studio by caching frequently used query results in RAM. To learn more about the speed of process in BigQuery, visit our how fast is BigQuery lesson.
