Create Reports from Redshift Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) allows you to create branded reports with data visualizations to share with your clients. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Redshift data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Redshift and build reports from Redshift data in Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Redshift, allowing you to easily build reports from live Redshift data in Looker Studio — without replicating the data. As you build visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Redshift, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Redshift data.

Connect to Redshift in Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Redshift" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Redshift.

   To connect to Redshift, set the following:

   • Server: Set this to the host name or IP address of the cluster hosting the Database you want to connect to.
   • Port: Set this to the port of the cluster.
   • Database: Set this to the name of the database. Or, leave this blank to use the default database of the authenticated user.
   • User: Set this to the username you want to use to authenticate to the Server.
   • Password: Set this to the password you want to use to authenticate to the Server.

   You can obtain the Server and Port values in the AWS Management Console:

   1. Open the Amazon Redshift console (http://console.aws.amazon.com/redshift).
   2. On the Clusters page, click the name of the cluster.
   3. On the Configuration tab for the cluster, copy the cluster URL from the connection strings displayed.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Redshift Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Redshift data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Redshift Data in Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new Redshift data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. Redshift1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. Orders) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Redshift Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Redshift data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Redshift data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.