Fast Analytics Experiment: SingleStore + Chartio

Customers choose Chartio for our speed to insights. There isn’t a faster or easier way to get from 0 to answer than using Visual SQL in Chartio. Or is there? What if the queries being run were also lightning fast? What would removing the friction of the query delay do for the experience and practice of exploring data?

To find out, we teamed up with our partner and arguably the fastest database out there: SingleStore (previously known as MemSQL).

SingleStore is a general purpose database but built for today’s operational analytics and BI workloads. Our platform offers a single place, or single store, for all of your data, with a singular table type to access everything. Since we are built on the MySQL wire protocol, it is incredibly easy to access SingleStore from anywhere, including Chartio.

Hi Sarung! Before we get started, could you tell us a little about your role, and your experience using and exploring data?

My name is Sarung Tripathi, and I’m a Principal Solutions Consultant at SingleStore. I have 7 years of experience in visualizations and analytics.

Great. And I understand that recently you tried Chartio for the first time. What were your expectations going into it?

I didn’t expect Chartio to be as seamless and performant as it was, because other BI tools that I’ve used (Tableau, Spotfire, PowerBI) typically require a lot more setup.

That’s nice to hear! Any other initial reactions to using Chartio?

I like the gamification of Chartio’s trial experience. It seemed like there was always assistance if I needed it. Sometimes with other tools I’ve felt that I’m left digging through docs with sales people badgering me.

So your overall trial experience was…?

Great. It took less than a minute to set up the trial and within another minute, I was connected to my SingleStore database. It took a bit longer to figure out the charting interface. That said, within 5 minutes of hearing about Chartio I had a dashboard.

You mentioned connecting your SingleStore database. I want to hear more about that, but first, for our readers who aren’t familiar with SingleStore, can you tell us a bit about it?

Sure. SingleStore is the fastest cloud-native database for operational analytics and lightning-fast dashboards (or as we call them, “fastboards”).

And why would someone want to connect SingleStore and Chartio?

Chartio makes it extraordinarily easy for people to build beautiful charts for business needs. Chartio leaves the “data work” to the database. SingleStore is really good at this “data work,” but also super simple to use. SingleStore is based on SQL, so whatever “demands” Chartio gives it, it can handle beautifully.

OK great. So, you said you started a trial in Chartio, and connected your SingleStore database. How’d that go?

This was hands down the easiest experience I’ve ever had connecting a visualization application to a database. Within 1 minute of completing my trial sign-up, I had SingleStore and Chartio connected via the MySQL connector. Then, I used the Visual SQL feature to quickly put together some charts and within a few more clicks everything was shared with Dave. Super cool!

Indeed! Very cool that you were able to put together a dashboard so easily. What did you make?

An AdTech dashboard, featuring impressions and clickstream data from advertising data. I was successful creating it with a combination of Visual SQL and regular SQL.

Excellent. Were there any features or processes that you found most helpful along the way?

Yes:

• Simplicity of connectivity
• Visual SQL
• Ability to drag and drop my visualizations anywhere within the chart
• The trial experience “gamification” with step-by-step achievement was rewarding
• Sharing with other users was super straightforward

You’ve mentioned Visual SQL a couple of times. Do you think a visual interface to exploring data is critical for business users today?

The term “analyst” no longer means data analyst, data scientist, data engineer, BI developer, etc. An analyst could be a mid-level-manager, a CEO, a head of sales, marketing, etc. Visual SQL is critical for these people. It also helps me be lazy :)

Nothing wrong with that! Do you have any advice for any of these non-technical “analysts” out there, who might be looking to get started with Chartio and SingleStore?

Chartio is amazingly simple to use while retaining the performance that business users look for. Non-technical people don’t need advice here, because using the platform is just that simple.

So glad to hear it. And finally, we hear there’s a pretty special event coming up. Want to tell people about it?

Yes! On November 12th, I’ll be joining [Chartio CEO] Dave Fowler for a webinar all about how to get accurate analytics, fast.

Very exciting. Any sneak-peek details you can share?

We’re going to cover topics like the must-have technologies for your modern BI stack, the first 5 charts customers are building today to get informed, and how you can build a dashboard in just 5 minutes using Chartio and SingleStore — just like I did. It should be a great discussion, and we invite everyone to register and join us.

We’ll see you on November 12th. Thanks for chatting with us, Sarung!