GSP623

Overview

Introduction

As organizations grow in size and collect terabytes of complex data, they need tools to house and make better sense of their information. Each business unit may need to analyze a portion of that data for specific business needs. In Finance, for example, a Financial Controller may be interested in analyzing their GCP billing data to answer specific questions such as:

• What was the total cost of a project last month?
• Which project consumed the most networking resources?
• What is the monthly cost broken down by team?

BigQuery helps users deal with large datasets using high speed compute power. But not everyone is a BigQuery expert or a data wizard. Many people may be more comfortable using spreadsheets to perform ad-hoc data analysis. You can use the data connector to pull your BigQuery data into a Sheet and perform your analysis.

The Sheets data connector for BigQuery is available only to G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Education accounts.

Objectives

• Open Sheets and use the data connector to connect to BigQuery

• Access data through BigQuery and import the data into Sheets

• Explore ways to analyze the data in Sheets and to then share the output with other users

Product Features

This lab makes reference to the following products and product features:

BigQuery

BigQuery is Google's serverless, highly scalable enterprise data warehouse. It is designed to make data analysts more productive. Because there is no infrastructure to manage, you can focus on uncovering meaningful insights using familiar SQL without the need for a database administrator.

Sheets

Sheets is a collaborative, smart, secure spreadsheets application for fast-moving organizations. AI features let you tap into the right insights to make meaningful business decisions. The cloud-based architecture enables you to collaborate.

Sheets data connector

Sheets data connector dynamically connects Sheets to BigQuery. This means you can connect to BigQuery, create a query, get a preview, and insert the results into a spreadsheet, all from within the Sheets interface.

Explore

Explore, an AI tool in Sheets, simplifies analysis of your data. Instead of relying on lengthy formulas to crunch your numbers, you simply ask questions and gather insights.

Refresh your data

After you access and analyze your data, keep your insights relevant by periodically refreshing the data you work from.

Control access

Once you've created your spreadsheet, analyzed the data, and configured data refresh, show it off. Use the Share feature to give other users access to your spreadsheet(s).