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Google BigQuery Drivers

Google BigQuery ODBC & JDBC Drivers from Simba

No other solution is as advanced or BI-ready for business users to report on their BigQuery data with the SQL-based tool of their choice.

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Connect to BigQuery With Simba’s ODBC & JDBC Connectivity

Enable your users to access, analyze, and report on their BigQuery data with the SQL-based tool of their choice. Simba ODBC and JDBC connectors for Google BigQuery give you full access to BigQuery’s Standard SQL. Allow users full application functionality and real-time analytic capabilities. Light-up features in BI clients by connecting to your BigQuery data in a powerful, effective way. Google BigQuery and Simba allow you to run SQL-like queries against very large datasets, with potentially billions of rows, using a small number of very large, append-only tables. Interrogating BigQuery to obtain schema information to present to the connected SQL-based applications, queries, including joins, are translated as necessary to work on BigQuery. Simba ODBC and JDBC connectors for Google BigQuery allow you to make quick analytic insights and to leverage the backend data source’s high-performance calculation capabilities for your favorite BI client. Our drivers comply with the latest ODBC 3.8 and JDBC 4.2 data standards and add important functionality like Unicode and both 32- and 64-bit support for high-performance and cloud computing environments.

Why Download Simba ODBC & JDBC Drivers for BigQuery?

Simba by insightsoftware is the official, high-performance connector between Google BigQuery and external tools, making it easier to use BigQuery with the platforms you already rely on.

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BigQuery ODBC & JDBC Driver Features

  • Powerful SQL Connector: Enables schema definition on schema-less BigQuery data and abstracts nested and complex data structures into relational formats.

  • Direct BI Connectivity: To query Google BigQuery data live without extraction, staging, or replication.

  • Broad BI Tool Compatibility: Works with leading analytic and reporting platforms, including Microsoft Excel & Access, Tableau, Power BI, and other leading tools.

  • BigQuery Standard SQL & Scripting Support: Able to execute BigQuery scripting commands and is fully aligned with standard SQL syntax.

  • Comprehensive Metadata Access: Exposes full connector and query metadata to improve schema discovery and BI usability.

  • Secure Data Transfer: Uses encrypted connections to BigQuery via SSL.

  • Support for ODBC 3.8 Support for JDBC 4.2 Supports the BigQuery Storage API for fast data access

  • Uses the BigQuery jobs.query API for scalable query execution.

BigQuery ODBC & JDBC Driver Specs

  • Supports both 32- and 64-bit applications

  • Fully compliant with the latest ODBC 3.8 specification Fully compliant with the latest JDBC 4.2 specification

  • Full Unicode support for international datasets

  • Optimized metadata retrieval for SQLTables and SQLColumns

  • Optimized support for Windows (Windows XP SP3 and newer, both 32- and 64-bit editions)

  • Supports BigQuery’s Standard SQL Supports all BigQuery data types (STRING, INTEGER, FLOAT, BOOLEAN, TIMESTAMP)

Simba Drivers are the Official Partner for BigQuery Data Connectivity

Data Extraction & Replication Adds Cost, Latency, & Risk

Instead of extracting BigQuery data into a warehouse or files so it’s usable for analytics, Simba and insightsoftware work directly with Google to create the smoothest data pipelines with minimal overhead. Simba’s BigQuery drivers enable direct, live BI connectivity to BigQuery, eliminating the need for data extraction or replication.

Leave Inconsistent Tool Compatibility Behind

Other BigQuery connectors behave differently across key tools like Excel, Tableau, and Power BI. Instead of building reports that break when tools or drivers change, our Simba drivers are fully compatible with leading analytics and reporting tools. This means consistent, standards-based connectivity across your other tools.

Security & Metadata Gaps Limit Enterprise Adoptions

Weak metadata exposure and insecure data transfer result in difficult governance and auditing, preventing many enterprises from deploying other drivers. Simba’s close partnership with Google gives you full connector and query metadata, optimized metadata retrieval, and secure SSL-encrypted data transfer to meet governance needs.

BigQuery ODBC & JDBC Driver FAQs

What are the Simba BigQuery ODBC & JDBC drivers, and why did Google partner with Simba for connectivity?

The Simba BigQuery ODBC & JDBC drivers are enterprise-grade connectivity solutions that offer standards-based SQL access to BigQuery from BI tools, analytics platforms, and custom apps. Google partnered with us because Simba was the original pioneer of ODBC, we have an established reputation for high-performance data drivers, and we’ve proven that we can deliver secure, scalable, and compliant connectors for modern platforms. This has made us the recommended connectivity layer for SQL-based access to BigQuery.

How do Simba’s drivers improve performance when connecting to BigQuery?

Our BigQuery drivers are built to push computation to BigQuery and minimize unnecessary data movement, which is critical at scale. They also support BigQuery Storage API for better performance of larger result sets and BI workloads. Simba BigQuery drivers use jobs.query to improve the efficiency of query extraction for more scalable and reliable workload management. Lastly, their optimized metadata handling results in faster schema discovery for BI tools and reduced overhead during report creation (and refresh).

How does the Simba driver handle BigQuery’s schema-less and nested data?

BigQuery supports semi-structured and nested data (e.g. RECORD and ARRAY), which many BI tools struggle to make sense of. Simba’s BigQuery drivers solve this with a relational abstraction layer. It dynamically redefines schema at query time, maps nested and repeated fields into SQL-accessible structures, and automatically adapts to schema evolution. All of this allows analysts and BI users to work with BigQuery data as if it were relational, while still getting the benefits of BigQuery’s flexible data model.

Which BigQuery APIs does the Simba driver use?

Our BigQuery ODBC and JDBC drivers integrate directly with BigQuery’s native APIs for unmatched performance, scalability, and accuracy. Instead of inefficient REST-only patterns, Simba drivers support BigQuery jobs.query API and BigQuery Storage API for query lifecycle, execution status, and result handling, as well as fast, parallelized data reads.

What BigQuery data types are supported?

Simba’s BigQuery drivers support all core BigQuery data types, including STRING, INTEGER, FLOAT, BOOLEAN, and TIMESTAMP. On top of these, our drivers fully support Unicode for international datasets, consistently expose data types across ODBC and JDBC, and ensure accurate type mapping for BI tools and SQL clients.

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