Parquet File Delivery FAQs
What is Parquet?
Parquet is a modern, columnar data storage format designed for big data processing and analytics. Unlike CSV, which stores data row by row, Parquet organizes data by columns, enabling smaller file sizes, faster queries, and better support for complex data types. With built-in schema metadata, it simplifies integration with databases and analytics tools. Widely supported across major data platforms, Parquet enhances efficiency, scalability, and cost savings.
Why should I use Parquet for my data needs?
Parquet improves query performance, reduces storage costs, and integrates seamlessly with big data platforms like Spark, Hadoop, and cloud services.
How do I access Parquet files from ATTOM?
Parquet files are delivered via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), ensuring secure and efficient access for large datasets.
What tools and platforms support Parquet?
Parquet is widely supported by AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, Apache Spark, and more, making it easy to integrate into your workflows.
Can Parquet handle structured and complex data?
Yes! Parquet supports nested and complex data structures, making it ideal for advanced analytics and machine learning applications.
Does Parquet reduce data storage costs?
Yes! Parquet’s columnar compression significantly reduces file sizes, leading to lower storage and compute costs compared to traditional formats
Can Parquet manage geospatial data effectively?
Absolutely! Parquet supports geospatial data through GeoParquet, an open-source extension specifically designed for storing geometries like points, lines, and polygons within Parquet’s columnar format. Built for interoperability, it works with leading cloud platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Databricks) and popular geospatial tools (e.g., QGIS, GeoPandas), ensuring fast queries and compact file sizes. GeoParquet retains Parquet’s core benefits while streamlining geospatial workflows for analyzing property boundaries, building mapping applications, or training machine learning models. ATTOM offers GeoParquet files, letting customers adopt these benefits instantly.