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Google has announced some new features-namely batch and Excel query support-that enable users to do more with their data using the Google BigQuery data analytics service.
Google officials said they realize big data is a big challenge for businesses and developers. There is a ton of information captured every day, but how do you effectively understand it in a way that moves your company, application or workflow forward based on real insights, Google asks. BigQuery can help you tackle this problem, and it has been Google’s goal to make it easier for organizations to work with the data they have.
BigQuery is a Web service for doing interactive analysis on very large data sets. BigQuery offers you a fast and simple way of doing analysis over large data sets. Because it is a service that runs on Google infrastructure, you don’t need to worry about provisioning servers and keeping them running. Google officials said the company has used BigQuery on data sets that are terabytes in size with trillions of records.
Meanwhile, to better equip users to work more efficiently with the data they have, Google recently introduced two new features for running user queries-support for batch queries and a BigQuery connector for Microsoft Excel.
In a recent blog post, Ju-kay Kwek, product manager for Google BigQuery, said last month Google BigQuery integrated several partner solutions, making it easier to import data from other cloud and on-premise solutions and visualize data with rich interactive dashboards. Now Google offers its two new features.
Regarding batch queries, Kwek said, “While BigQuery specializes in getting insights quickly, we understand that there are important, non-interactive queries, such as nightly reports, that businesses also need to run. Now, you can designate a query as a batch query and it will complete within a few hours. If you’re using BigQuery via our standard self-service model, you pay 2 cents per GB processed for batch queries and 3.5 cents per GB processed for interactive queries.”
As for the BigQuery Connector for Excel, Kwek said, “Last year, we launched the ability for BigQuery users to execute queries inside Google spreadsheets using the Google Apps Script integration. With the new BigQuery Connector for Excel, we’re now making it simpler to execute BigQuery queries using Microsoft Excel. This connector takes advantage of Excel’s standard Web query feature to eliminate the extra work of manually importing data and running queries directly within Excel. For instructions on how to download and use the connector, see the BigQuery Connector for Excel page.”