Warehouses and Lakes
Warehouses and Lakes

How to load data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your BigQuery data into AWS Datalake within minutes.

TL;DR

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:

  1. set up BigQuery as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
  2. set up AWS Datalake as a destination connector
  3. define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is BigQuery

BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehousing and analytics platform that allows users to store, manage, and analyze large amounts of data in real-time. It is a fully managed service that eliminates the need for users to manage their own infrastructure, and it offers a range of features such as SQL querying, machine learning, and data visualization. BigQuery is designed to handle petabyte-scale datasets and can be used for a variety of use cases, including business intelligence, data exploration, and predictive analytics. It is a powerful tool for organizations looking to gain insights from their data and make data-driven decisions.

What is AWS Datalake

An AWS Data Lake is a centralized repository that allows you to store all your structured and unstructured data at any scale. It is designed to handle massive amounts of data from various sources, such as databases, applications, IoT devices, and more. With AWS Data Lake, you can easily ingest, store, catalog, process, and analyze data using a wide range of AWS services like Amazon S3, Amazon Athena, AWS Glue, and Amazon EMR. This allows you to build data lakes for machine learning, big data analytics, and data warehousing workloads. AWS Data Lake provides a secure, scalable, and cost-effective solution for managing your organization's data.

Integrate BigQuery with AWS Datalake in minutes

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Prerequisites

  1. A BigQuery account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
  2. A AWS Datalake account.
  3. An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including BigQuery and AWS Datalake, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake, it extracts data from BigQuery using the source connector, converts it into a format AWS Datalake can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into AWS Datalake via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their BigQuery data for advanced analytics and insights within AWS Datalake, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up BigQuery as a source connector

1. First, you need to have a Google Cloud Platform account and a project with BigQuery enabled.

2. Go to the Google Cloud Console and create a new service account with the necessary permissions to access your BigQuery data.

3. Download the JSON key file for the service account and keep it safe.

4. Open Airbyte and go to the Sources page.

5. Click on the "Create a new source" button and select "BigQuery" from the list of available sources.

6. Enter a name for your source and click on "Next".

7. In the "Connection Configuration" section, enter the following information:  
- Project ID: the ID of your Google Cloud Platform project  
- JSON Key: copy and paste the contents of the JSON key file you downloaded earlier  
- Dataset: the name of the dataset you want to connect to

8. Click on "Test Connection" to make sure everything is working correctly.

9. If the test is successful, click on "Create Source" to save your configuration.

10. You can now use your BigQuery source connector to extract data from your dataset and load it into Airbyte for further processing.

Step 2: Set up AWS Datalake as a destination connector

1. Log in to your AWS account and navigate to the AWS Management Console.
2. Click on the S3 service and create a new bucket where you will store your data.
3. Create an IAM user with the necessary permissions to access the S3 bucket. Make sure to save the access key and secret key.
4. Open Airbyte and navigate to the Destinations tab.
5. Select the AWS Datalake destination connector and click on "Create new connection".
6. Enter a name for your connection and paste the access key and secret key you saved earlier.
7. Enter the name of the S3 bucket you created in step 2 and select the region where it is located.
8. Choose the format in which you want your data to be stored in the S3 bucket (e.g. CSV, JSON, Parquet).
9. Configure any additional settings, such as compression or encryption, if necessary.
10. Test the connection to make sure it is working properly.
11. Save the connection and start syncing your data to the AWS Datalake.

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your BigQuery data to AWS Datalake

Once you've successfully connected BigQuery as a data source and AWS Datalake as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

  1. Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
  2. Choose your source: Select BigQuery from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
  3. Select your destination: Choose AWS Datalake from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
  4. Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
  5. Select the data to sync: Choose the specific BigQuery objects you want to import data from towards AWS Datalake. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
  6. Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
  7. Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
  8. Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your AWS Datalake data warehouse is always up-to-date with your BigQuery data.

Use Cases to transfer your BigQuery data to AWS Datalake

Integrating data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

  1. Advanced Analytics: AWS Datalake’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your BigQuery data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within BigQuery alone.
  2. Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with BigQuery, syncing to AWS Datalake allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
  3. Historical Data Analysis: BigQuery has limits on historical data. Syncing data to AWS Datalake allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
  4. Data Security and Compliance: AWS Datalake provides robust data security features. Syncing BigQuery data to AWS Datalake ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
  5. Scalability: AWS Datalake can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding BigQuery data.
  6. Data Science and Machine Learning: By having BigQuery data in AWS Datalake, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
  7. Reporting and Visualization: While BigQuery provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to AWS Datalake, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a BigQuery table that needs to be converted to a AWS Datalake table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

  1. Configure a BigQuery account as an Airbyte data source connector.
  2. Configure AWS Datalake as a data destination connector.
  3. Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from BigQuery to AWS Datalake after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

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Connectors Used

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

flag icon
Easily address your data movement needs with Airbyte Cloud
Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
Get started with Airbyte for free
high five icon
Talk to a data infrastructure expert
Get a free consultation with an Airbyte expert to significantly improve your data movement infrastructure. 
Talk to sales
stars sparkling
Improve your data infrastructure knowledge
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and get the community’s new enlightening content along with Airbyte’s progress in their mission to solve data integration once and for all.
Subscribe to newsletter

Connectors Used

Frequently Asked Questions

What data can you extract from BigQuery?

BigQuery provides access to a wide range of data types, including:

1. Structured data: This includes data that is organized into tables with defined columns and data types, such as CSV, JSON, and Avro files.
2. Semi-structured data: This includes data that has some structure, but not necessarily a fixed schema, such as XML and JSON files.
3. Unstructured data: This includes data that has no predefined structure, such as text, images, and videos.
4. Time-series data: This includes data that is organized by time, such as stock prices, weather data, and sensor readings.
5. Geospatial data: This includes data that is related to geographic locations, such as maps, GPS coordinates, and spatial databases.
6. Machine learning data: This includes data that is used to train machine learning models, such as labeled datasets and feature vectors.
7. Streaming data: This includes data that is generated in real-time, such as social media feeds, IoT sensor data, and log files.

Overall, BigQuery's API provides access to a wide range of data types, making it a powerful tool for data analysis and machine learning.

What data can you transfer to AWS Datalake?

You can transfer a wide variety of data to AWS Datalake. This usually includes structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data like transaction records, log files, JSON data, CSV files, and more, allowing robust, scalable data integration and analysis.

What are top ETL tools to transfer data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake?

The most prominent ETL tools to transfer data from BigQuery to AWS Datalake include:

  • Airbyte
  • Fivetran
  • Stitch
  • Matillion
  • Talend Data Integration

These tools help in extracting data from BigQuery and various sources (APIs, databases, and more), transforming it efficiently, and loading it into AWS Datalake and other databases, data warehouses and data lakes, enhancing data management capabilities.