
Google to Acquire Looker - rohit6223
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/expanding-our-platform-for-business-intelligence-and-embedded-analytics
======
buremba
Hey all, as a potential competitor of Looker, I'm not sure how I should feel
about this news. :) Here are some of the facts:

1\. When Google acquired Alooma, they slowed down the development and dropped
the support for other destinations such as Redshift and Hive. Even though
Alooma is a data pipeline tool which makes it similar to Looker's case, the
deal was $150M (compared to $2.6B) so I'm not sure the comparison makes sense.

2\. Looker's sale team is so aggressive and their support team is great. In
fact, that's why Looker became so big in the last few years. Google is not
famous in terms of support.

3\. Google is serious on BigQuery and I'm almost sure it will make Looker part
of the Google Cloud. Since most of Looker customers are enterprise companies,
Google will probably chase them to switch to BigQuery. On the other hand,
Google has tons of BI tools (Data Studio, BigQuery BI Engine, etc.) so I'm not
sure if Google makes Looker part of their analytics stack.

P.S: We're big fans of the LookML and we have developed a LookML alternative
based on Jsonnet ([https://jsonnet.org/](https://jsonnet.org/)) and the great
data pipeline tool DBT. ([https://github.com/fishtown-
analytics/dbt](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt)). Here is how it
looks like: [https://github.com/rakam-io/segment-
recipe/blob/master/event...](https://github.com/rakam-io/segment-
recipe/blob/master/event/pages.event.jsonnet)

~~~
mirceal
you should feel pretty good. i’ve yet to see a product acquired by google that
did well after.

~~~
anbop
YouTube, Android, Applied Semantics, DoubleClick, 510 Systems... you haven’t
been looking very hard.

~~~
gordon_freeman
And Waze too. I love that app's singular focus in improving the driving
experience and nothing else as a Maps product.

~~~
snazz
I’m surprised (and glad) they didn’t integrate it into Google Maps and shut
down Waze.

~~~
parliament32
Lots of it is integrated into Maps: a good portion of the traffic/accident
alerts have a "reported by Waze" line at the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised
if they start sunsetting Waze once they're fully integrated and finished
experimenting on it.

~~~
mirceal
ding ding ding. this guy gets it

------
sturgill
I'm a huge fan of Looker, but I'm not sure how I feel about this news. The
best parts of Looker:

\- It connects directly to your existing data warehouse. Most BI tools suck in
your data into their datastore; Looker queries your database directly. If you
wanted Looker to cache results for performance reasons, you could set up a
dedicated schema in Redshift for example and only give write privileges to
that one schema. But even the cached dataset was stored directly in your data
warehouse.

\- It is platform agnostic.

\- LookML is backed by Git. By default, changes to your LookML definitions are
pushed to a Looker-owned Github repo, but you can change this so that the repo
is under your control as well.

\- The support is pretty phenomenal.

There's that unsettled part in me that's wondering the over/under on two years
before we get the next announcement: to give you better performance, it's
tightly integrated with BigQuery; LookML is getting long in the tooth so we've
gone ahead and created the views you'll need which are now accessible via the
Google Analytics interface; you can go ahead and forward your concerns to
/dev/null.

~~~
sildur
Oh, I can tell you what is going to happen. It is going to be killed in about
2-3 years.

~~~
derefr
I really, really doubt it; Google has never killed a product that it created
or acquired to serve as a complement to enterprise Ads/Analytics usage.

Google kills plenty of its _consumer_ products if they don’t catch on in a big
way (Reader, Google+); and it certainly “transitions” _developer_ -targeted
product/service startups into plain features (Firebase, WordLens, etc.) But
this is neither—it’s BI software, for enterprise customers who build it deeply
into their decision-making in the same way they build Google Analytics itself
into their decision-making. These are not the people even Google wants to make
mad. They’re precisely the people writing the checks which make up the
majority of Google’s ad revenue!

~~~
shakna
> and it certainly “transitions” developer-targeted product/service startups
> into plain features (Firebase, WordLens, etc.

They recently killed "Works with Nest" in favour of an Assistant-backed API
that doesn't currently implement what Google acknowledges to be the most
popular features of "Works with Nest".

Google are more than willing to kill developer-oriented as consumer-oriented.

~~~
agentdrtran
Nest is a consumer brand that sells consumer products.

~~~
shakna
The Nest wasn't shelved though, it was the developer API that got the half-
hearted approach.

------
reilly3000
I've used Looker before and am mostly a fan. Contrary to many of the comments
here, its not precisely a 'kiddie' tool for people that don't want to learn
SQL; its more like a ORM/DSL for BI queries. I'd probably be using it in my
current gig, but the licensing model doesn't really work for small operations.

Google Cloud has an actually great track record of acquiring data-centric
companies and democratizing them. While Data Studio is pretty amazing for a
free tool, it has many shortcomings for serious use, and Looker fills all
those holes nicely, while also providing the ability to formalize processes
around data. Instead of mousing around Data Studio, Looker allows for all of
its resources to be defined in its YAMLish syntax and maintained in source
control.

------
jon-wood
I'm curious to see how Google handle acquiring a company which requires some
fairly high touch sales. Looker is a fantastic tool, but its not something
which is useful from day one, and at least currently has a high enough price
tag attached to it that they involve a lot of sales engineering in getting new
customers to a point where they're able to query data they care about.

~~~
chkuendig
I would interpret this as a sign that Thomas Kurian is trying to
"enterprisify" Google Cloud by acquiring companies with high-touch enterprise
sales cultures. Which runs against Google's traditional stance but is also
credited as one of the reason Google Cloud has struggled to sell into big
companies so far.

~~~
Terretta
Yes. To date, the Google Cloud sales pitch felt like, “Super smart Googlers
all use super secret awesome sauce to do Google-scale things, you should
automatically buy the pale imitations we externalized* and love it without any
support because it’s all just such Googley goodness.”

For instance, this is the mantra about Borg, Omega, Kubernetes and GKE, or
Blaze and Bazel, or etc.: well, we have an amazing thing, we copied a bit of
it for you because you’re not us, but isn’t it great? Please send any feedback
to our noreply@google.com autoresponder so we never have to leave the hive.

TBC, the world is better for the stuff Google externalized! CNCF wouldn’t be
what it is otherwise. But the default _attitude_ about it is the exact
opposite of how enterprises get comfort in buying.

------
Achshar
Me and My team have been working on a Looker alternative for a couple of
years. Hope this is the right time to give a pitch. We as a company love to
assist our clients with a free consultation in understanding their data
better. This will take you to the direct demo:
[https://demo.katoai.co/login?email=demo@katoai.co&password=k...](https://demo.katoai.co/login?email=demo@katoai.co&password=katoai&ref=hn)

I can talk a lot about it if anyone is interested.

~~~
ddon
What is the target market? Can small business use this? Looks pretty cool!

~~~
Achshar
The target market is anyone who has any kind of data. CSV, mysql, etc.
Basically Tableau but much cheaper and customisable.

We already have a few small business using Kato. They seem to enjoy that.

~~~
tomnipotent
> Basically Tableau

You mean Mode/Periscope/Superset/Metabase. I don't see anything that put's
Kato near Tableau's offerings like Server, Prep etc.

~~~
Achshar
Yes we probably lie close to Superset and Mode than we do to Tableau but I
believe the data transformations, access level (sharing) and deep integration
put us apart from those. Tableau's quite bit more mature than we are but we
already support self hosted service, OAuth based auth integration,
sophisticated user access level based sharing for all resources (reports,
connections, users, dashboards, visualizations, product features, etc). We
don't cost an arm and a leg either.

~~~
tomnipotent
> data transformations, access level (sharing) and deep integration put us
> apart from those

I couldn't find anything about these features on my first pass, though I do
now see the "Cleanup" bit on the "Data Visualization" page. I would have
really liked to see more about features/tools/strengths and less nebulous
marketing promises.

~~~
Achshar
That... would be the marketing team for you. We do spend quite a bit of our
time adding stuff that I don't think I've seen anywhere else but is extremely
useful for some of our biggest clients.

~~~
tomnipotent
> I don't think I've seen anywhere else

Market that stuff! Blog posts, list of features, service comparison -
anything. For example, I know that Tableau offers in-memory storage that can
help improve performance by bring data in locally and not hitting the original
source. Kato mentions something about "10x performance improvement", but
there's zero explanation how this is accomplished.

~~~
Achshar
We have 3 different levels of storages to avoid hitting remote. Redis cache
for query, storing the results on our server and letting users edit the data
as well and finally front end cache with service workers.

I think I'll start writing out the feature comparisons.

------
fhoffa
At Next 2018 we had Jordan Tigani (BigQuery Director at Google) and lloyd tabb
(Founder of Looker) on stage together. Maybe a sign of things to come:

\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYUGv_omJA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYUGv_omJA)

------
tmountain
I'm curious what this means for folks that opted to use Looker for their
embedded analytics and if that's something Google is interested in supporting
over the long-term?

I'm also wondering how this affects pricing over the long-term and whether
this becomes a replacement for Data Studio / commoditized analytics platform
to make GCP more compelling?

Would it be in Google's interest to offer this for free (or at least with very
little up front cost) in the interest of competing with AWS?

As a sidenote, Looker is a great platform. I evaluated 8 BI platforms late
last year, and it really stood out (LookML, Git integration, awesome charting
widgets, customization, etc).

~~~
sv123
Very worried on the embedded side, we spent a full year migrating off of
sisense embedded onto Looker embedded and literally launched two days ago.
Embedded on any BI platform already seems like a red-headed stepchild with a
little love, but not too much, being put into it in fits and starts. It could
be so useful to so many companies, but the platform costs puts it outside most
of their reach, so it ends up just hanging out. The thought of moving again
makes me ill, not just for the herculean dev effort, but the fact that Looker
really does have one of the only really useful embedded offerings. No other BI
tool could compare.

~~~
drinkzima
We aren’t going anywhere. You’re going to continue to get the same product and
support you are used to.

------
chirau
"Looker -- SQL for Dummies"

Before you downvote me, these are not mine words but actually from a Looker
engineer I asked to summarize the product. I don't know how accurate the quote
is, but it stuck with me.

Also, congrats to the team I guess. Is an acquisition an accomplishment or
just a decision?

~~~
mountainofdeath
I can confirm that. I spent some time looking at it when the entire sales team
at the SaaS startup I was at insisted on it. I'll admit, I have yet to see a
BI tool that was this easy. I tried selling them first on a self-hosted
instance of Apache Caravel, but it turns out ANY SQL is too much.

~~~
sturgill
To be fair to LookML, it does some great things (kind of like SASS vs CSS).
It's great defining constraints in a single variable and then being able to
reuse those constraints in any query. It's also wonderful being able to set
both default and global constraints: the first can be overwritten, but the
second can't.

I was once part of a project where we had certain users and payments we would
flag as invalid (for fraud or other reasons). We wanted those records in our
data warehouse for very specific reports, but never wanted anyone who was
consuming reports to be able to include them in final counts. A global
constraint in the LookML definition was a perfect answer. I could still run
specific reports directly against Redshift, but there was no concern that a
less technical manager would get confused.

I'm not associated with Looker in any way, but have really enjoyed working
with their product. I was really hoping they'd stay on the path of
independence and IPO, but I can't fault them for taking billions of dollars
and calling it a day...

------
siliconc0w
Looker is a pretty interesting tool that essentially solves the SQL
manageability problem. SQL is really hard to reuse but LookML data models are
easily reused (and are versioned in git which is really nice since Business
Analysts typically aren't familiar with version control). Integrating LookML-
style data modeling into BigQuery could be interesting...

------
royalharsh95
We use Looker and BigQuery. LookML is amazing, once you know how to use it.
Looker has some nice documentation and community built around it.

    
    
        - https://training.looker.com/
        - https://discourse.looker.com/

------
asmodeous789
As someone on the BQ -> Looker Stack, I'm very very happy about this news. I
also think their going to not have pricing pressure for a while as Google may
want them to keep taking market share away from Tableau, Qlik, etc.

------
9diov
For anyone who is not familiar with Looker, I wrote a write-up and review
about it here [https://www.holistics.io/blog/looker-review-and-
breakdown/](https://www.holistics.io/blog/looker-review-and-breakdown/). Here
are the key points:

\- Its use of LookML provides a steep learning curve, yet provides a
maintainable and reusable data modeling

\- Looker's drill-down ability is decently powerful and easy to use once you
are familiar with LookML.

\- Looker does not have its own storage layer but instead relies on customer's
data warehouses

\- Looker, in essence, is a _SQL query builder_ engine that converts business
users' drag-and-drop inputs into SQL queries.

\- Looker provides highly flexible and sophisticated access control and
permission management, sacrificing simplicity for power.

\- Looker has limited data preparation capabilities compared to other tools,
delegating this task to its partners to provide these capabilities.

------
gk1
Smart move. Google wants to own the entire data infrastructure. Alooma
(acquired in February) gets your data from various sources into BigQuery, then
all the analysis is done in Looker.

Unfortunate news for non-Looker users: Supposedly Alooma stopped supporting
Redshift and Snowflake integrations following the acquisition, since those
compete with BigQuery. If you're using Looker with Redshift or Snowflake you
should be concerned.

Edit: By “stopped supporting” I meant they deprioritized it from the roadmap.
I do not mean that they disabled the integration.

~~~
nofinator
Did Alooma really stop support for Redshift and Snowflake? Officially they say
they still do [https://www.alooma.com/solutions/data-
warehousing](https://www.alooma.com/solutions/data-warehousing)

Maybe you're personally noticing a difference in the amount of support before
and after the acquisition?

~~~
ironchef
They did not. We use it with snowflake and it's just fine right now. What they
did do was put most of their roadmap on hold while they figure out what future
direction looks like.

------
philshem
This will be a great addition into GCP. Data Studio is decent but can't
compete with Tableau, Qlik, etc.

~~~
lmkg
Data Studio actually isn't part of GCP at all, it's part of GMP (with
Analytics & DV360/DoubleClick). There are integrations between the two, but my
guess is that Data Studio continues to exist in GMP and fills the role of
dashboards for marketers, while Looker will fulfill the BI role.

~~~
dudus
Technically yes but datastudio is also listed as a cloud product. Datastudio
actually lives in an intersection between GMP, cloud and gsuite

~~~
philshem
Yes, indeed. Lot's of connectors to non-GMP stuff:

[https://datastudio.google.com/data](https://datastudio.google.com/data)

------
tuke
Frankly, this one patent is worth a lot of money. This is the magic by which
Looker casts out duplicate records in joins.

[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=H...](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=%22tabb,+lloyd%22.INNM.&OS=IN/%22tabb,+lloyd%22&RS=IN/%22tabb,+lloyd%22)

~~~
kwillets
Ha, SQL hacks as patents.

------
outside1234
Hopefully Google starts a campus in the Santa Cruz area off the back of
this...

~~~
jrowley
That would definitely help Santa Cruz’s rental market

~~~
mc32
It would definitely revitalize the coast. But at what price? Can you imagine
the gridlock on State Highway 17 (and the Pac HWY)?

If I sat in the governator’s office, I’d push for a commuter line from the
South Bay to St Cruz. That would be so much more beneficial than the HSR to
no-where we wasted 70 billion on.

~~~
outside1234
It is too obviously a great strategy to put in rail between San Jose Diridon,
Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz, so let's build rail in the middle of nowhere
instead.

There is even an abandoned tunnel under the mountain that did this in the
early 1900s!

~~~
mc32
Thanks for reminding me of that. I thought there had been but wasn't sure if
it went all along HWY 17. Apparently there was one running till the 40s.[1]
But the highway killed it (not mudslides as is often attributed). There were a
total of 8 tunnels most of them condemned and dynamited. But apparently the
right of way exists and could be rebuilt! So there is hope if people and
businesses push hard enough for it.

Commuters would rejoice, SCZ would enjoy revitalization and integration into
the Bay Area economy and holidaymakers would enjoy a nice leisurely trip to
the beach by train --what a treat that would be!

[1][https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/05/abandoned-railroad-
tu...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/05/abandoned-railroad-tunnels-tell-
tale-of-town-shift-author-talk-next-week/)

~~~
imagetic
I don't think anyone in Santa Cruz wants that. As a long-time Santa Cruz
resident, the only people I know who want it to be more are tech people who
have been pushed down here cause of shortages over the hill or just like to
surf.

------
rohit6223
[https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/0606/](https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/0606/)

------
xibalba
Hopefully Looker's viz/dashboarding functionality is quickly and tightly
integrated with GCP. Data Studio is woefully under featured.

------
iblaine
Before this acquisition: Looker > Tableau > QlikView > Superset (now
preset.io)

After this acquisition: Superset (now preset.io) > Looker > Tableau > QlikView

Now that Looker is owned by a corporation, the innovation is going to
diminish. The creative forces will cash out and move on. I think Superset is
going to fill the void that these BI corporations leave behind.

~~~
streblo
Looker has always been owned by a corporation.

------
hui-zheng
below my view on this acquisition. I think Google is making a good move to
break into Enterprise market. After Thomas Kurian joined Google (He is from
Oracle), he said that Google will become a leading vendor for Enterprise IT
solution and serve the largest enterprise clients in the world. He aims to
compete with IBM, SAP and Oracle (Microsoft is is not the best player in this
field.) Case in point, Google announce Anthos this year, which aims
specifically to serve large enterprise.

Looker is one of the best upcoming BI platforms in the market. I like Looker.
I even took Looker Certificate exam 3 years ago because I think Looker
consultant will be valuable in the future. I would’ve already joined Looker to
get their shares if they have office in Vancouver. :slightly_smiling_face:

LookML is a killer feature that solves a critical pain point in Enterprise BI
and set Looker apart from the competitors, like Tableau and Periscope. This
feature is no value to small startups and small company, but great feature for
mid-size company, and critical to Large enterprise BI. Looker has a great
potential to become the next leading Large Enterprise BI that successes Oracle
OBIEE, MS PowerBI and SAP Business Object.

I think if Google is to take Looker and make it the next Enterprise BI and use
it to get in the door of large Enterprise Customers, They are making a right
strategy move. Google will bring a superior BI solution to its top-tier
enterprise customers than IBM, Oracle, SAP. It plays well with Google’s
strength in data offering, and BI the easier segment for Google to break
through comparing to ERP, CRM and other enterprise solution segments.

If Google just wants part of Looker and absorb into the Google Machine, they
are paying too high a price tag for it. (I don’t think that’s what Google are
doing). I don’t think Google is buying it to eliminate competitor either,
Google doesn’t have any products that offer similar features or target same
market as Looker

------
not_that_noob
No mention of the purchase price - tho Looker was likely flying in unicorn
heights.

~~~
fhoffa
$2.6b, all cash.

\-
[https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/0606/](https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/0606/)

------
brd529
Most looker instances I’ve seen are wired to redshift. How long until support
for non google cloud databases is dropped, deprioritized, etc?

~~~
brd529
The looker blog post addresses this though the google one doesn’t:

> For customers and partners, it’s important to know that today’s announcement
> solidifies ours as well as Google Cloud’s commitment to multi-cloud. Looker
> customers can expect continuing support of all cloud databases like Amazon
> Redshift, Azure SQL, Snowflake, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Teradata and
> more.

Time will tell - but I suspect we’ll see new features will be “bigquery first”

------
didip
wow, Google is hella serious in pushing GCP to the next level. Multi billion
dollars investment year after year.

------
croisillon
It's been an incredible journey!

------
wmichelin
Congrats to the team at Looker!

------
stunt
BigPlans for BigQuery

------
macspoofing
Good for Looker. Hopefully that will cut down on aggressive spam and sales
from Looker.

------
JaimeThompson
What is the over / under on how many days till Google kills all their
products?

~~~
johnatwork
1.5 years

Unless they say put out a statement to commit their efforts into keeping it
the way it is.

If that statement comes out, then shorten it to 1 year.

------
aleks_me2
The page is White with JavaScript off. Here the Info which is readable with
JavaScript off :-) [https://looker.com/blog/looker-to-join-google-
cloud](https://looker.com/blog/looker-to-join-google-cloud)

