Connecting Your BI Tool (Metabase, Tableau, Superset, etc.) to Production Databases Is Painful—Here’s a Better Way

This is part of blog Series “Database to Analytics Ready Data“

If you’ve ever tried connecting Metabase, Tableau, PowerBI, Superset, or Redash directly to your production database (whether it’s MongoDB, Postgres, MySQL, or any SaaS data source), you’ve probably encountered performance bottlenecks. Here’s why:

1. Slow Dashboard Loading

   • Each dashboard issues multiple SELECT queries, often with complex JOINs, aggregations, and filtering.

   • Query response times skyrocket as database usage increases.

2. High CPU Usage

   • Postgres (or your chosen database) ends up crunching through millions of rows, causing CPU usage to spike.

   • Resource contention affects other applications sharing the same environment.

3. Potential Locking or Performance Degradation

   • Long-running queries tie up resources, creating bottlenecks for other processes.

   • You may see timeouts, partial results, or dashboards that take minutes (or more) to load.

In many real-world scenarios, it doesn’t take long before your analytics stack becomes a headache. Data engineers and business stakeholders alike end up staring at loading spinners for far too long.

Connecting BI Tools to Datazip’s OneStack and Seeing Immediate Improvements in chart rendering times

Datazip’s OneStack is not a BI layer or visualization tool itself. Instead, it’s your engineered data backbone that:

• Ingests data from various sources (e.g., relational databases, SaaS, event data).

• Transforms and optimizes it for analytics, using the power of ClickHouse under the hood.

• Exposes fast, low-latency endpoints that any BI tool can connect to for near real-time data exploration.

Why is that so important? Because instead of pointing your BI tool directly at your production database, you now point it to OneStack’s endpoints. The result?

• Faster dashboards and visualizations.

• Minimal load on your critical production systems.

• Scalability as your data and user base grow.

Step-by-Step: Connect Your BI Tool to Datazip’s OneStack

1. Set Up OneStack

   • Ingest your data into Datazip’s OneStack.

   • Our ClickHouse-based infrastructure handles large volumes of data with ease.

2. Retrieve Your Connection Credentials

   • Once your data pipeline is configured, you’ll get a secure endpoint (plus username/password or token) to connect.

   • This endpoint is similar to connecting to any other SQL-compatible data source.

3. Configure Your BI Tool [configs below]

   • Metabase: Add a new database, choose “ClickHouse” (or the appropriate connector), and input the endpoint details.

   • Superset: Create a new data source connection with the same credentials.

   • Power BI: Use the native ClickHouse or ODBC connector.

   • Redash: Point Redash to the OneStack endpoint.

   • Tableau: Use the ClickHouse JDBC or ODBC connector.

4. Start Querying & Building Dashboards

   • Because the data is now optimized in OneStack, you can filter, group, and slice millions—or even billions—of rows in seconds.

   • No more heavy loads on your production database.

Why We’re Not a BI Layer—And Why That’s a Good Thing

• Flexibility: You’re never locked into a single visualization tool. Prefer Metabase’s simplicity? Great. Need Tableau’s enterprise features? Sure thing.

• Focus on Performance: By specializing in data ingestion, cleaning, transformation, and high-speed query execution, we deliver best-in-class performance under the hood.

• Seamless Integrations: Our endpoints integrate quickly with top BI tools, so your analysts can keep using what they’re already comfortable with.

Connect external BI (Business Intelligence) tool to visualize your data

1. Metabase

Find the complete end to end doc here connecting OneStack with Metabase and develop charts and graphs on top of this ingested data.

Figure Showing Tweet count vs the tweet language, visualized in Metabase

This is just one simple sample graph for illustrations, you got the cleaned up data from us, now its upto you how you paint pixels on the screen with this data.

2. Superset

3. PowerBI

Find the complete end to end doc here connecting OneStack with PowerBI and develop charts and graphs on top of this ingested data.

4. Redash

Find the complete end to end doc here connecting OneStack with Redash and develop charts and graphs on top of this ingested data.

5. Tableau

Find the complete end to end doc here connecting OneStack with Tableau and develop charts and graphs on top of this ingested data.

Common Questions

1. Do I have to ditch my existing BI tools or dashboards?
Nope. Simply repoint your data connection from your production DB to Datazip’s OneStack. The same charts, filters, and dashboards will work—just faster.

2. Is there a limit to the data volume OneStack can handle?
OneStack is built on top of ClickHouse, which is designed for petabyte-scale analytics. We can handle billions of rows without breaking a sweat.

3. What about semi-structured data from sources like MongoDB?
Our ingestion layer supports various data shapes. We can transform your JSON or document-based data into a columnar-friendly schema, ensuring optimal query performance.

4. How does pricing work?
Pricing depends on the volume of data ingested and the resources used. Contact us at hello@datazip.io for a custom quote.

P.S. If you’re reading this, there’s a high chance you’re frustrated with slow queries on your PostgreSQL data. We get it—nobody likes staring at a loading spinner. Check out Datazip’s OneStack and let your queries breathe again

If you have any questions or want to learn more, drop us a line at hello@datazip.io or book a quick demo meeting with us.