PDE Preparing and Using Data for Analysis Practice Question
A data engineer needs to query data from BigQuery and another cloud provider's storage (AWS S3) using a single SQL query. The data must not be moved or copied to GCP. Which Google Cloud service should they use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
BigQuery Omni
BigQuery Omni allows querying data across multiple clouds (AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage) using BigQuery's interface without moving data. BigQuery Omni runs compute in the other cloud's region. BigQuery Transfer Service moves data into BigQuery. Dataplex is for data management, not cross-cloud queries. Cloud Storage Transfer Service is for moving data between clouds.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Storage Transfer Service
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage Transfer Service moves or copies objects between storage buckets, which contradicts the requirement that data remain in AWS S3. It is tempting because it is the standard tool for migrating or replicating data into Cloud Storage, and would be correct if the goal were copying S3 data into GCP.
- ✗
Dataplex
Why it's wrong here
Dataplex provides data governance, cataloguing and metadata management across lakes, warehouses and marts; it does not execute federated SQL against external object stores. It is tempting because it spans multiple data sources, and would be correct for discovering, classifying and governing data assets rather than querying them.
- ✗
BigQuery Data Transfer Service
Why it's wrong here
BigQuery Data Transfer Service ingests and copies data into BigQuery datasets on a schedule, so it cannot query S3 in place without movement. It is tempting because it is the managed service for loading external sources into BigQuery, and would be correct when periodic ingestion into BigQuery is acceptable.
- ✓
BigQuery Omni
Why this is correct
BigQuery Omni runs BigQuery SQL directly against data held in AWS S3 through Anthos-hosted compute, returning results without extracting or copying the data into Google Cloud. This satisfies the constraint that the S3 data must remain in place while a single query spans both sources.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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