Looker, a data platform provider, is releasing new tools and integrations to optimize data science workflows.
Looker is improving its governed data workflow with an SDK for R and connections for Python, as well as streamed and merged results, Google TensorFlow integrations, and clean, visual recommendations for users.
“We’re focused on preparation that happens which a lot of research will tell you takes up 70-80% of data scientists time and the operationalization piece that comes after,” said Daniel Mintz, chief data scientist at Looker. “What we’re really focused on is saving data scientists’ time and increasing their accuracy by helping them access data across their organization in a governed and version-controlled environment so what they feed into their models is correct and leverages everybody’s knowledge in the organization.”
Looker is also continuing to partner with data science vendors to provide more seamless workflow integration.
“We really want people to use what tool they are most comfortable with,” Mintz said. “We just want to make it really simple for you to access data from Looker no matter which tool you’re using.”
Other new capabilities include:
- Merge results - Combine data from multiple sources into a single analytic view
- Stream results - Query and stream even massive data sets for use in data science modeling
- Statistical functions - Perform advanced statistics directly in Looker
- Suggested analytics - Looker provides suggested analytics and dashboards right from the user’s home page
- R SDK - Easily leverage data from Looker while working with R and RStudio
- Python connections - Easily leverage data from Looker while working with Python and Jupyter Notebooks
- Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence Partners - Integrate with best-of-breed technology partners to make the Data Science workflow more efficient, including Big Squid and TensorFlow from Google
Because of machine learning and AI development is moving quickly, the company is constantly looking to integrate the latest and greatest into Looker, according to Mintz.
“As we talk to our partners, to folks at Amazon, Google, IBM, we’re deeply integrated into their product development processes and understand where they’re going so we’re looking forward to rolling out a bunch of deep integration with their AI products,” Mintz said.
For more information about these updates, visit www.looker.com.