BigQuery - BigIdiot

[BillKVMotorCo]

I've heard talk of BigQuery and the benefits of its use, but I'm an idiot and when I read this it sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me:

"BigQuery Editions allow you to pick the right feature set for individual workload requirements with the ability to mix and match for the right price-performance. Compute capacity autoscaling adds fine-grained compute resources in real time to match the needs of your workload demands, and ensure you only pay for the compute capacity you use. With compressed storage pricing, you can reduce your storage costs while increasing your data footprint at the same time."

"BigQuery ML enables data scientists and data analysts to build and operationalize ML models on planet-scale structured, semi-structured, and now unstructured data directly inside BigQuery, using simple SQL—in a fraction of the time. Export BigQuery ML models for online prediction into Vertex AI or your own serving layer. Learn more about the models we currently support."

Can someone explain it to me like I am 5?

 

[craigh]

Imagine you have a big box of toys called "BigQuery Editions". You can pick and choose different toys (features) to play with, depending on what games you want to play (workload requirements). It's like having a mix and match toy set, so you don't need to pay for toys you don't use. When you're playing and need more toys, the box magically adds more toys (compute capacity) for you, and you only pay for the toys you play with.

Now, think of "BigQuery ML" like a super helpful robot friend that lives in the toy box. This robot can help you build awesome toy structures (ML models) with different types of building blocks (structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data) using simple instructions (SQL). It's super fast and makes building your toy structures really easy. You can also take your toy structures and show them off at other playgrounds (Vertex AI or your own serving layer).

 

[craigh]

If you're asking if BigQuery is for you, I would say that's very subjective but I think it's probably overkill for most automotive businesses / dealerships.
Something like PowerBI can drill into your data and get conclusions for you if you know what you're looking for.

I view BigQuery as something to be used in situations where you have massive amounts of data points that are disparate and you're trying to find trends and conclusions based on that. If you tracked a dealership with foot traffic, online traffic, sales, service, wi-fi access point connections, daily weather, staff vacations, working hours, etc and you put it all in BigQuery, you could ask it to find things like the busiest time of day or which weather results in the most sales walk-ins, etc.

The potential is massive, but unless you have multiple rooftops and loads of data to track, I think it's overkill.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

I don't think I could have received a better answer to my question. I like relaying it to toys to match my "explain it to me like I'm 5." That was a nice touch. I DO have what would likely be considered a lot of data for a small store like mine. If I'm bragging a little, I'd probably say I have more data than even a lot of larger stores. Still don't know that it's enough to justify it. I definitely don't have any weather data. Ha.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@craigh with the masterclass answer. Thanks for laying that out. I was not familiar. At some point someone's going to ask me what BigQuery is and I'll be able to answer like I'm smart, knowing exactly what I'm talking about.

 

[Alex Snyder]

@craigh with the masterclass answer. Thanks for laying that out. I was not familiar. At some point someone's going to ask me what BigQuery is and I'll be able to answer like I'm smart, knowing exactly what I'm talking about.

DealerRefresh.... it is like staying in a Holiday Inn Express every night.