Data to Dashboards: The Analytics Lab¶
Welcome to the Data Analytics & Visualization lab! In this section, you will build a complete, automated data pipeline on Google Cloud. This is a powerful, real-world pattern used to move data from operational databases into a data warehouse for analysis and reporting.
Lab Overview¶
You will build a pipeline that:
- Sets up a Destination: You'll start by creating a home for your data in BigQuery, Google's serverless data warehouse.
- Extracts & Transforms Data: You'll write and deploy a Cloud Function that connects to a MySQL database, runs a SQL query to transform the data, and prepares it for loading.
- Automates the Pipeline: You'll use Cloud Scheduler to automatically run your function on a recurring schedule, ensuring your data warehouse stays up-to-date.
- Visualizes the Insights: Finally, you'll connect Looker Studio to your BigQuery data to build and customize an interactive dashboard.
What's Next¶
Let's begin by setting up the foundation of our data pipeline: the BigQuery dataset and table.