Frequently asked questions about GX Cloud

Questions about GX Cloud, answered.

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GX Cloud accounts

  • How much does GX Cloud cost?

    Please visit our pricing page for more information.

  • Do you have a limit on the number of Expectations (or seats, rows, or tests) I can have?

    GX Cloud’s pricing tiers are based on the number of Data Assets you have actively under test, per month:

    • Up to 5 in the developer plan

    • Up to 10 included in the team plan base price

      • Additional Data Assets can be added

    • A custom limit for the enterprise plan

    Since collaboration is essential to data quality, GX Cloud’s paid plans include unlimited user seats. You can involve everyone who needs to be involved in your data quality process without increasing costs. GX Cloud’s free developer plan allows up to 3 users.

    We also want you to set up your tests in the way that’s clearest and most usable for you, so all of GX Cloud’s plans include unlimited Expectations (tests). Create as many Expectations as you need without paying more for GX.

    Your data quality process shouldn’t be overturned by unexpectedly large amounts of data. All of GX Cloud’s plans have unlimited rows per Data Asset—volume-related data quality issues won’t unexpectedly up your GX bill.

  • How can I learn about the GX Cloud roadmap?

    We periodically share insights into GX Cloud’s roadmap at our community meetups. You can sign up for future meetups here. We also post past meetups on our YouTube channel.

GX Cloud technical specifications

  • What is GX Cloud’s scalability?

    Scalability and performance optimization in GX Cloud (and its engine, GX Core) is something we’ve invested a lot in, because we know how important it is! Teams worldwide have successfully implemented GX Core and GX Cloud in deployments of varying sizes and complexity. 

    To a significant extent, GX Cloud’s performance is in your control. Because the vast majority of GX Cloud’s data processing takes place where the data is stored, the amount of computing resources available in your environment dictate GX Cloud’s performance.

    For users of the SaaS interface, GX uses auto-scaling resources to ensure that UI performance is maintained as user demand increases.

GX Cloud deployment & data processing

  • Does GX Cloud store my data?

    No. GX Cloud can read the data in the tables you connect it to, but compute, including the processing of your data quality tests, happens within your environment. GX Cloud does not pull the data under test into the application.

    GX Cloud does store a limited amount of metadata that is needed for its basic operations, such as displaying the results of your tests and managing your Data Assets. This basic metadata includes your table names and column names, as well as some other information generated during test execution. 

    GX Cloud’s default configuration also displays metadata to assist users with root cause analysis and remediation when there are data quality incidents, in the form of examples of failing data. As metadata, these examples are stored on GX Cloud. If you do not want GX Cloud to store this kind of diagnostic metadata, it can be disabled, in which case GX Cloud will display only pass/fail results for your tests.

    All metadata in GX Cloud is encrypted and stored securely. Click here for more information about data processing in GX Cloud.

  • Where does GX Cloud store data and metadata (data residency)?

    When under test with GX Cloud, your data continues to reside in the environment in which you currently have it, with limited exceptions for the metadata required to operate GX Cloud.

    GX Cloud stores this metadata in the AWS East region. For options to store GX Cloud metadata outside of the United States, contact us.

  • Does GX Cloud support multi-tenancy?

    Yes. GX Cloud can support multi-tenancy in a variety of ways, including segmentation by data source or by organization.

  • Where does GX Cloud’s data processing happen?

    GX Cloud executes your tests in the environment in which your data is already located: wherever your Snowflake, Postgres, or Databricks SQL database is hosted. This means that the vast majority of the data processing GX Cloud does happens within your own environment.

    Even when deployed as a fully hosted SaaS application, GX Cloud’s activities on the GX-hosted environment are limited to orchestrating and executing your tests (with execution carried out in your environment) and displaying the results in GX Cloud. GX Cloud always connects to your data in a read-only fashion with secure and encrypted methods.

    Optionally, GX Cloud allows you to deploy its orchestration functionality (the GX Agent) on your own environment. With this approach, no data is processed on GX-hosted resources except for the storage of the metadata required to operate the platform.

  • What is GX Cloud’s deployment architecture?

    GX Cloud’s architecture has three major components: its web-based user interface, its API, and its backend. The backend consists of the GX Core platform plus some orchestration functionality that coordinates GX Cloud’s connection to your data sources.

    Users drive GX Cloud’s behavior through the web UI and/or the API. This behavior is executed by the backend.

    In the default fully hosted deployment, all three components are hosted by Great Expectations. The UI is accessed via a web browser and the API via a standard API client.

    Alternate deployments in which you host the orchestration component of the backend on an organizational or local environment are available by request.

    For complete documentation of GX Cloud’s deployment architecture, see the documentation.

GX Cloud support

  • Does GX Cloud have an SLA?

    Yes, for users on the Enterprise plan. This SLA is currently 99.5%.

  • Does GX Cloud have guaranteed support response times?

    Yes, for users on the Enterprise plan. Response times as soon as 1 hour during business hours, depending on issue severity, are available. We monitor the platform 24/7 with issues triaged by on-call engineers, who are supported with full incident management procedures.

GX Cloud compliance and security

  • What kind of security features does GX Cloud have?

    GX as an organization has obtained our SOC2 Type II certification: for more details, visit the GX trust center.

    GX Cloud only stores the metadata that’s required to display your data quality test results, profile your data, and otherwise operate the platform. This metadata is encrypted at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.2. We also enforce tenant isolation both in the application and in the database via Postgres Row Level Security (RLS) rules. 

    GX Cloud never hosts your data, or copies your data or Data Sources to a GX-controlled machine or environment. All processing takes place in your environment for both security and performance reasons.

    For users, GX Cloud provides user management and RBAC functionality to allow user access to organizations. All of an organization’s users can see the Data Sources and the associated Expectations and results.

  • Is GX Cloud compliant with HIPAA?

    Yes: a BAA is available for organizations on our Enterprise plan. As an organization, GX is SOC 2 Type II compliant; additional information about our security is available in the trust center.

GX Cloud customization and extensibility

  • Does GX Cloud have APIs available?

    Yes. GX Cloud is powered by GX Core, our open source Python framework, which is one of the most extensible data quality solutions available and has a broad  API.

  • Can GX Cloud accommodate custom rules?

    Yes. GX Cloud allows you to create custom rules using SQL in its user interface, alongside preconfigured Expectations.

    In addition, GX Cloud’s data quality capabilities are powered by GX Core, our open source Python framework. This makes it one of the most extensible data quality solutions available. Many teams have elected to implement their custom rules via GX Core, some using programmatic methods to import existing rulesets and others creating the custom rules directly in GX Core.

GX Cloud and GX Core

  • Can I use GX Cloud if I’m not already using GX Core?

    Yes! GX Cloud is fully hosted—you don’t need to install anything to use it. 

    Our documentation on GX Cloud’s deployment options has all the details, including information on the optional alternatives to fully hosted.

  • How is GX Cloud related to GX Core?

    GX Cloud and GX Core are two complementary components that together create the GX platform.

    GX Core provides the platform’s critical technical capabilities, including Expectations. It’s a powerful Python framework that gives data teams flexibility, which is one reason that it’s the most popular data quality framework in the world.

    GX Cloud makes it easy to get value out of GX Core. This includes providing a fully hosted infrastructure that makes it quick to get started, a user interface that’s accessible to technical and nontechnical stakeholders alike, and additional features that facilitate communication and collaboration.

    Think of GX Core as a car engine—a powerful machine, but it needs additional components to help you get anywhere. GX Cloud is like getting a complete car: all the power of the engine at its center, plus everything you need to actually go places.

  • When should I use GX Cloud vs GX Core?

    GX Cloud is the right choice for most people: it’s a fully hosted SaaS layer that adds extra features on top of GX Core.

    GX Cloud is much easier to set up and get started, and allows for more effective collaboration workflows around your data quality process. This is doubly true for nontechnical stakeholders, who will find GX Cloud’s intuitive user interface a familiar way of navigating the world. 

    GX Cloud also offers enhanced visualizations, historical data, and changelogs compared to GX Core. Critically, GX Cloud also has user management and RBAC capabilities that are not part of the GX Core framework.

    GX Core is the best option in some niche scenarios: if you need to BYOdB, have esoteric infrastructure requirements like air gap, or just can’t use cloud-hosted SaaS.

  • Will you continue to support GX Core?

    Yes. GX Core is an integral part of GX Cloud, and we’re committed to maintaining, developing, and improving it for the long haul. Our latest investment in it is a major improvement effort which culminated in the release of GX 1.0 in August 2024.

Have confidence in every decision

Always know what to expect from your data when your data quality is powered by GX Cloud.

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