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Common semantic layer supplier Dice this week unveiled new integration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that can streamline GCP person entry to knowledge that’s well-modeled and ruled. The corporate additionally held its first person convention, in London.

Common semantic layers (USLs) have grown in significance over the previous 12 months as corporations search for higher knowledge consistency of their superior analytics and AI tasks. Semantic layers historically sat subsequent to the BI and analytic device, however corporations now are demanding USLs that permit them to outline their enterprise metrics as soon as after which push that out to a number of analytic and AI engines.

That is serving to to spice up the fortunes of Dice, which makes one among a handful of USLs and one of many solely ones that’s totally open supply. The corporate’s flagship product, referred to as Dice Cloud, serves as a USL that sits between prospects’ knowledge and the AI and analytic engines they wish to use.

A USL like Dice Cloud permits organizations to outline their knowledge fashions. Clients begin by creating cubes that outline the enterprise entities by way of the metrics, measures, and dimensions they wish to use. Dice Cloud then permits organizations to show components of their cubes, which collectively compose a graph, as views to the downstream analytics, spreadsheets, and AI apps. This strategy ensures that the group is analyzing knowledge in response to the phrases they’ve predefined.

Cubes and views are uncovered in Dice’s semantic layer (Picture courtesy Dice)

Clients might already use Dice Cloud with knowledge on the Google Cloud Platform, together with Google BigQuery, Looker Studio, Google Cloud Storage, and Google Compute Engine. The massive information yesterday is the help for Dice Cloud for Sheets (now in preview), and that it’s obtainable within the Google Sheets Extension Retailer. That makes it simpler for a Google Sheets buyer to get going with Dice Cloud, stated David Jayatillake, VP of AI for Dice.

“Somebody can go and set up that, connect with their Dice Cloud occasion, and begin utilizing our software, which feels very similar to a pivot desk interface, to drag measures and dimensions from their semantic layer, after which extract the info in that format to push into Google Sheets and use it from there,” Jayatillake stated.

“So moderately than somebody having to drag in uncooked knowledge into Google Sheets and manipulate it, they will simply pull properly formatted, ruled, persistently outlined metrics and dimensions,” he continued. “They will save many steps, however they will additionally keep away from getting the definition of information incorrect [and avoid getting] the manipulation of information incorrect that they’d do usually.”

Dice’s USL extends effectively past GCP. On the consumption aspect, it options pre-built integrations to BI instruments from Tableau, ThoughtSpot, Metabase, and Apache Superset, amongst others, in addition to Excel through an MDX API. It options REST, GraphQL, and SQL APIs, and may emulate a Postgres database.

This week, the corporate is predicted to introduced help for Lightdash. On the supply aspect, Dice helps a variety of databases, together with BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Amazon Redshift, ClickHouse, SingleStore, and Firebolt, amongst others.

Dice hosted a person convention yesterday in London. Dubbed Rollup, the occasion was the primary bodily occasion for the corporate. It plans on internet hosting one other occasion in mid-October in San Francisco, the place it’s based mostly.

Dice has a number of hundred paying prospects of Dice Cloud. On the open supply entrance, Dice says its semantic layer software program is put in on 90,000 servers and utilized by 4.9 million customers all over the world. The corporate, which raised $25 million in July, is backed by Databricks Ventures, Decibel, Bain Capital Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and 645 Ventures.

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