Alteryx launches in-warehouse data prep tool for BigQuery

Combined capabilities

Based in Irvine, Calif., Alteryx is a longtime data management vendor providing a platform for integrating data from disparate sources and preparing it for analytics and AI. In recent years, Alteryx has made automation a key feature of its various tools, and in May 2025 launched Alteryx One to unify previously disparate capabilities and make its suite easier to navigate.

Live Query for BigQuery is good in many ways because it enables BigQuery-scale analytics, which is way beyond the capacity of any Alteryx server, and Google Cloud customers will like it because it keeps data in-place, secured and managed by Google.

BigQuery, meanwhile, is a fully managed data warehouse and AI platform purpose-built to enable fast SQL queries and data analysis across massive datasets.

The impetus for developing Live Query for BigQuery came from a shared realization between Alteryx and Google Cloud that joint customers want to use Alteryx and BigQuery in conjunction with one another, but that doing so can be too complex for some data teams, according to Ben Canning, Alteryx's chief product officer.

Specifically, he noted that users want the power, security and governance of a centralized platform like BigQuery along with the data preparation and integration capabilities of a vendor such as Alteryx.

"Business users clearly see the value of these platforms, but they're often too complex for non-technical teams to fully take advantage of on their own," Canning said. "That means a lot of the business-critical work -- things like data prep, calculations and logic -- still happens outside the platform. … Live Query for BigQuery brings those together."

The result is stronger governance and security for data integration and preparation workloads with reduced complexity, he continued.

"That shared customer need is what really drove this partnership forward," Canning said. 

Specific benefits of Live Query for BigQuery include the following, according to Alteryx:

• Preparing data and applying business logic to data using Alteryx directly in BigQuery.
• Executing and automating governed data integration and preparation workflows at data warehouse scale.
• Maintaining the centralized governance, security, and performance of Google Cloud.
• Enabling faster insight generation for data, analytics and AI teams.

Matt Aslett, an analyst at ISG Software Research, noted that the widespread adoption of cloud data platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Snowflake and Databricks has led to close integration between analytics and data preparation specialists such as Alteryx and hyperscale cloud providers. As a result, Alteryx's alignment with Google Cloud is not the first such partnership to produce capabilities that reduce the need to move data between platforms.

In fact, Alteryx offers Live Query capabilities for Databricks and Snowflake. However, Live Query for BigQuery is nevertheless significant given that it expands Alteryx's Live Query offerings to those customers that also use BigQuery for their data warehouse needs, according to Aslett.

"Alteryx Live Query for BigQuery will enable Alteryx users with Google BigQuery to … potentially improve performance and reduce cost and complexity," he said.

Farmer similarly noted that Live Query for BigQuery isn't unique in the sense that it enables users to push their analytics and data preparation workloads down into their data warehouse. However, the new tool has characteristics such as a drag-and-drop experience for direct queries and optimization for BigQuery that somewhat differentiate it from similar offerings, Farmer added.

"I would say only that it is unique in its specifics, rather than its concepts," he said.

Meanwhile, despite Live Query for BigQuery's potential value to joint Alteryx and Google Cloud customers, not all users might like the feature, Farmer cautioned.

Live Query for BigQuery changes the way users work with data stored in BigQuery, removing it from the Alteryx environment some users might prefer. However, for large workloads, the benefits of working with data where it resides rather than moving it between systems likely outweighs other concerns.

"Alteryx had the best user experience to support an iterative workflow of preparation, analysis, re-preparation when something did not look quite right, and re-analysis," Farmer said. "This becomes much more difficult with live queries. But at this scale, it becomes somewhat impractical anyway."

Next steps

Just as Live Query for Big Query speeds and simplifies data workflows, Alteryx's product development plans for 2026 focus on further enabling customers to manage and analyze data more efficiently, according to Canning.

"That means continuing to bring analytics and AI workflows closer to where trusted data lives, expanding in-place execution, and making business logic a governed, reusable asset rather than something buried in spreadsheets or code," he said.

In addition, Alteryx is focused on helping customers build AI models and applications using clean, well-prepared data that can be trusted, Canning continued.

Aslett noted that Alteryx has substantially expanded its product portfolio since it was acquired by Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners. In particular, the vendor has improved its offerings for cloud and hybrid environments and added AI-powered tools for data preparation and analytics.

Regarding potential next steps, Aslett suggested that after expanding its partnership with Google Cloud, Alteryx do the same with other hyperscale cloud providers.

"By offering tight integration with Google Cloud and ease of adoption through the Google Cloud Marketplace, Alteryx lowers barriers to adoption for Google Cloud customers," he said. "As such, I would anticipate similar editions of Alteryx One purpose-built for the likes of AWS, Microsoft Azure, Databricks and Snowflake."

Farmer, meanwhile, suggested that Alteryx do more to help customers control costs. According to a 2024 Gartner survey of more than 300 CIOs, cost is a prohibitive factor in developing advanced applications. Spending on cloud-native capabilities such as Live Query for BigQuery can quickly add up, so providing a tool that enables customers to predict expenses would be beneficial.

"They need deeper cost governance, especially with this Live Query feature because as users run more of these queries cloud costs can spike," Farmer said. "They need a cost estimator that tells a user how much a workflow will cost in BigQuery credits before they hit 'run'. … Alteryx could do something interesting here."

Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more three decades of experience. He covers analytics and data management.