Google released BigQuery Omni this week, a multicloud analytics tool with support for Amazon Web Services (AWS), as a private alpha.
The service allows BigQuery’s petabyte-scale data warehouse service to directly connect to data stored in other cloud services. BigQuery Omni allows users to query data stored on Google Cloud, AWS, and (in the very near future) Microsoft Azure. Before BigQuery, data needed to be stored in Google Cloud.
Debanjan Saha, Google Cloud GM, stated that data is not just one room in a house. “It’s the foundation.” Moving data between clouds can be costly and cumbersome. BigQuery Omni will provide customers with a multi-cloud analytics platform that allows them to gain critical insights in one unified experience.
BigQuery Omni runs on Anthos. This is Google Cloud’s hybrid multicloud platform, which was announced last year at the Cloud Next conference. The platform includes the Anthos Google Kubernetes engine (GKE), Config Management and Service Mesh, as well as security components. BigQuery, which was 10 years old in May, is the public implementation Google’s Dremel search engine. BigQuery’s architecture separates compute and storage. This allows Dremel to query data in other cloud services. This eliminates the need to migrate entire data sets.
Saha explained that BigQuery Omni is a new way to analyze data stored in multiple public cloud services. This is possible because BigQuery separates compute and storage. BigQuery allows for scalable storage that can be stored in Google Cloud or other public cloud providers, as well as stateless resilient computing that can execute standard SQL queries.
Google Cloud has released this release to acknowledge a multi-cloud reality and the need for organizations to “break down silos” and create actionable business insight. All of this without having to pay expensive fees to move data from other cloud providers to Google Cloud.
“As hybrid and multiple-cloud adoption becomes the norm, enterprises are increasingly looking to data products that provide a consistent user experience and lower complexity while still allowing them to continue using existing infrastructure investments,” stated Matt Aslett, analyst at 451 Research. “BigQuery Omni is a demonstration of Google Cloud’s strategy to assist customers in multi-cloud environments.
BigQuery Omni is now available in private beta for AWS S3. Azure support will be available soon, Google Cloud states. BigQuery Omni supports Avro and CSV, JSON. ORC and Parquet. This form is for companies who are interested in BigQuery Omni.
