Connecting to BEEM

BEEM offers five ways to connect your tools and pipelines to your data warehouse. Each option strikes a different balance between how easy it is to set up, how secure the connection is, and what kinds of apps it works with.

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Not sure which one to pick?
Most teams start with the Public warehouse endpoint — it's the fastest way to get connected and works with virtually every BI and analytics tool. Once your usage matures or compliance requirements grow, your BEEM contact can help you migrate to a more isolated option like Cloud Connect.

Recommended best practice

Match the connection option to the type of user or workload:

Individual analysts working from Excel, Tableau Desktop, or Power BI Desktop → BEEM ODBC
Cloud-hosted BI tools (Tableau Cloud, Power BI Service, Looker, Metabase) → Public warehouse endpoint with IP allowlisting
Automated pipelines and ETL (dbt, Airflow, Fivetran) → SSH tunneling for M2M
Whole teams that need broad access to internal resources → VPN
Enterprise customers on AWS with strict no-internet policies → Cloud Connect

You can mix and match — for example, run analysts on ODBC while routing your dbt jobs through M2M SSH.

Comparison matrix

Connection option	Best for	Security	Effort to set up
BEEM ODBC	Individual users connecting from their laptop	High	Low
Public warehouse endpoint	Quick setup with cloud-hosted BI and analytics tools	Medium	Low
SSH tunneling (M2M)	Automated pipelines and service-to-service workloads	High	Medium
VPN	Teams that need broad access to internal resources	High	High
Cloud Connect (VPC peering)	Enterprise customers with strict no-internet policies	High	High

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How to enable a connection option
All connection options are provisioned by the BEEM team. To request setup or learn more about which option fits your use case, contact BEEM support or reach out to your account manager. We'll guide you through the setup, share any prerequisites, and help your team get connected quickly.

Connection options in detail

BEEM ODBC

The BEEM ODBC driver is the simplest way for an individual analyst to query the warehouse from their laptop. Install the driver, sign in once, and connect from your favorite spreadsheet or BI tool. Traffic stays inside a secure tunnel — your data never travels over the open internet.

Best for: Excel power users, Tableau Desktop, Power BI Desktop, ad-hoc analysis.

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Need the BEEM ODBC driver?
Contact BEEM support to request the driver and your access credentials.

Public warehouse endpoint

The fastest path to "connected." We expose your warehouse on a public, encrypted endpoint and lock it down to the IP addresses you trust. Most cloud-based BI tools and SaaS analytics products support this out of the box.

Best for: Tableau Cloud, Power BI Service, Looker, Metabase, and any other tool running outside your network.

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Want to enable the public endpoint?
Contact BEEM support with the IP addresses or ranges you'd like us to allowlist.

SSH tunneling for M2M

For automated pipelines and machine-to-machine workloads (ETL jobs, scheduled dbt runs, ingestion services), SSH tunneling provides a secure, internet-free path to your warehouse. Your service authenticates with an SSH key and connects through a BEEM-managed bastion.

Best for: dbt Core, Airflow, Fivetran, custom data pipelines, internal services.

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Setting up an automated pipeline?
Contact BEEM support to provision a service account and SSH key for your workload.

VPN

A VPN gives an entire team network-level access to your BEEM environment. Once connected to the VPN, every app on the user's machine — desktop tools, browser-based services, custom scripts — can reach the warehouse as if it were on your internal network.

Best for: Teams that need to access multiple BEEM-hosted resources or want a single, IT-managed gateway for all users.

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Interested in VPN access?
Contact BEEM support to discuss VPN setup and identity provider integration.

Cloud Connect (VPC peering)

Cloud Connect creates a private network link between your AWS environment and BEEM — no public internet exposure, no VPN client required. It's the gold standard for enterprise customers with strict security and compliance requirements.

Best for: Large organizations on AWS that need to connect cloud-native tools (Tableau Cloud, Looker, Snowflake, partner SaaS) to BEEM with zero public exposure.

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Considering Cloud Connect?
Contact BEEM support to scope a VPC peering or PrivateLink setup with your team.

Still not sure?

Every customer's setup is a little different. Reach out to [email protected] and we'll help you choose — and provision — the right option for your workloads.