Looker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.
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TIBCO Data Virtualization
Score 8.5 out of 10
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TIBCO Data Virtualization is an enterprise data virtualization solution that orchestrates access to multiple and varied data sources and delivers the datasets and IT-curated data services foundation for nearly any solution.
For less evolved reporting, it is not bad at all. It is not designed to scale, fully. I mean that as long as you do not intend to scale, it is a good product for your company. Log aggregation level reporting is not suited for Looker. Customer facing data reporting is. As long as the reporting is not too multi-dimensional, Looker is good.
Well suited: Useful for aggregating data sources and creating a master view to be used across Org streams/ units. Less appropriate: Not a lot of organs use TDV solely because it is marketed as a sole virtualization product rather than a suite of products. Moreover, there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to the user interface, especially the web manager console.
Performance of TDV repository database is rather poor for larger numbers of objects .(Note: We have approx. 9tsd objects introspected in TDV and approx. 20tsd objects generated in upper DV layers.)
Propagation of privileges to parent/child dependencies does not work when applying recursively on a folder. (It's a huge setback when working with large number of objects organized semantically into subfolders.)
Lack of command line client interface for scripting at the time of version 8.4 (I had to write my own CLI.)
TDV Studio does an absolutely horrible job with its own code editors when indentation is in place. Also, the editor is brutally slow and feature-poor.
Tracking privileges on the level of table/view columns causes occasional problems when regranting.
TDV's stored programs ("SQL scripts" in their own terminology) compiler leaves out many syntactic and semantic checks, making them hugely prone to run-time errors.
TDV Server's REST API is a very poor (in terms of features) and flawed cousin to its SOAP API (at the time of version 8.4).
We've been very happy with Looker so far, and all teams in the organization are starting to see its value, and use it on a frequent basis. It has quickly become our accessible "source of truth" for all data/metrics.
Nontechnical users can create reports easily. Can create customized reports individually or on the whole for the group. Slicing and dicing data through Looker fairly simple. Drill-downs are much better than anticipated. Especially heat map drill-downs, became most popular within the company, considering the company is a location analytics ad tech company.
It really is a product with excellent performance, the impact within the company has been very good since different processes have been improved in different areas, both data analysis, development, integrations, and best of all, it has not affected the users. Different systems with which it has connectivity to obtain the information.
Looker support specialists are heroes. They are knowledgeable, smart, and always vouch for your success. The availability is super quick, and even if there is no current solution for my problem, they will address it and voice it as feedback for a product.
On a few occasions I have asked TIBCO technical support for help because I have adapted perfectly to their tools, but in those few that I have communicated with their technical team I have received personalized, attentive, responsible attention and I am always assisted by an expert staff the topic. A TIBCO technical support technician spent more than an hour helping me to solve a problem in the initial stage of implementation in my department and this is something that I always appreciate.
The training was helpful. I was able to understand how to use TIBCO for the data load process that we implemented and how to perform various troubleshooting steps based on the training I received. The technician was thorough and took the time to answer any questions. Once we were shown how to use TIBCO in the test environment, we were able to configure the production environment ourselves.
Other vendors have clearer, more visual implementation documentation. We also did not have our data architect and and server administrator available full-time for implementation. In the future, we will secure the necessary internal resources.
Looker stacks up very well against the other tools we have evaluated and used. All the tools have their own pros and cons. Looker had a better edge in terms of visualizations when we chose to use it. After several updates, other tools began to have newer features. Looker still stands competitive.
[TIBCO Data Virtualization] is [has great performance] and [the] overall cost is much reasonable than other competitors. The wide range of services/features make it the perfect solution for our data needs. [TIBCO Data Virtualization] has always met our quality needs.
The platform allows you to create visual representations of your data and store them in charts, graphs and maps.
Gives the business owner the flexibility to visualize their data in a real time manner, thereby enabling the business owner to be on top of their data and understand its dynamics.
