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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/workday-cloud-gemini-enterprise.rst

⇱ How to Connect Workday Data to Gemini Enterprise via CData Connect AI

How to Connect Workday Data to Gemini Enterprise via CData Connect AI

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect CData Connect AI Remote MCP to Gemini Enterprise to securely read and take actions on live Workday data in real time using natural language.

Gemini Enterprise is Google's enterprise AI assistant, available as part of Google Workspace. With native support for Custom MCP Server data stores, Gemini Enterprise can be extended to query and act on live enterprise data via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). When combined with CData Connect AI Remote MCP, Gemini Enterprise can interact with Workday data in real time using natural language — without data replication or custom integration logic.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Workday data via a single managed MCP endpoint. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between Gemini Enterprise and Workday, allowing users to ask questions and take actions on live Workday data through natural language prompts.

This article explains how to connect Gemini Enterprise to live Workday data through CData Connect AI by creating a Custom MCP Server data store — giving users access to Workday data directly from the Gemini Enterprise chat interface.

About Workday Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Workday. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access the tables and datasets you create in Prism Analytics Data Catalog, working with the native Workday data hub without compromising the fidelity of your Workday system.
  • Access Workday Reports-as-a-Service to surface data from departmental datasets not available from Prism and datasets larger than Prism allows.
  • Access base data objects with WQL, REST, or SOAP, getting more granular, detailed access but with the potential need for Workday admins or IT to help craft queries.

Users frequently integrate Workday with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to replicate Workday data to databases or data warehouses. Access is secured at the user level, based on the authenticated user's identity and role.

For more information on configuring Workday to work with CData, refer to our Knowledge Base articles: Comprehensive Workday Connectivity through Workday WQL and Reports-as-a-Service & Workday + CData: Connection & Integration Best Practices.


Getting Started


Prerequisites

  1. A CData Connect AI account with at least one active connection (e.g., Workday)
  2. A Gemini Enterprise account (trial available)
  3. A Google Cloud project with billing enabled
  4. The Google Cloud CLI installed and configured
  5. In your Google Cloud account:
    • Override the organization policy for Custom MCP data stores (learn more).
    • Grant the Discovery Engine Editor role to the administrator (learn more).

Step 1: Configure Workday connectivity for Gemini Enterprise

Connectivity to Workday from Gemini Enterprise is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Workday data from Gemini Enterprise, start by creating and configuring a Workday connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Workday" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Workday.

    To connect to Workday, users need to find the Tenant and BaseURL and then select their API type.

    Obtaining the BaseURL and Tenant

    To obtain the BaseURL and Tenant properties, log into Workday and search for "View API Clients." On this screen, you'll find the Workday REST API Endpoint, a URL that includes both the BaseURL and Tenant.

    The format of the REST API Endpoint is: https://domain.com/subdirectories/mycompany, where:

    • https://domain.com/subdirectories/ is the BaseURL.
    • mycompany (the portion of the url after the very last slash) is the Tenant.
    For example, in the REST API endpoint https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/api/v1/mycompany, the BaseURL is https://wd3-impl-services1.workday.com and the Tenant is mycompany.

    Using ConnectionType to Select the API

    The value you use for the ConnectionType property determines which Workday API you use. See our Community Article for more information on Workday connectivity options and best practices.

    APIConnectionType Value
    WQLWQL
    Reports as a ServiceReports
    RESTREST
    SOAPSOAP

    Authentication

    Your method of authentication depends on which API you are using.

    • WQL, Reports as a Service, REST: Use OAuth authentication.
    • SOAP: Use Basic or OAuth authentication.

    See the Help documentation for more information on configuring OAuth with Workday.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Workday Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Create an OAuth App in CData Connect AI

Gemini Enterprise uses OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code with PKCE to authenticate users against the CData Connect AI MCP Server. This requires creating a user-based OAuth App in your CData Connect AI account.

  1. Click the Gear icon () in the top-right corner of Connect AI to open Settings.
  2. Navigate to OAuth Apps and click + Create App. The Create OAuth App dialog appears.
  3. Enter the following settings:
    • Name — Enter a descriptive name (e.g., GeminiEnterpriseOAuth).
    • Authentication Flow — Select User-based (Authorization Code).
    • Callback URL — Enter https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/oauth-redirect.
    👁 Creating a new OAuth App in CData Connect AI
  4. Click Confirm. CData Connect AI creates the OAuth App and generates a Client ID and Client Secret.
  5. Copy both the Client ID and Client Secret values. You will need them in Step 5. 👁 Copying the Client ID and Client Secret

With the connection configured and an OAuth App created, we are ready to create the custom MCP server data store in Gemini Enterprise.

Step 2: Create the custom MCP server data store

  1. Open Gemini Enterprise and navigate to the Data stores screen.
  2. Click Create data store.
  3. On the Select a data source page, enter Custom MCP Server in the Search sources field. The Custom MCP Server card displays.
  4. Click Add MCP server. The MCP Server Configuration page displays.
  5. In the Authentication settings section, enter values in the following required fields:
    • MCP Server URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
    • Authorization URL: https://cloud-login.cdata.com/authorize
    • Token URL: https://cloud-login.cdata.com/oauth/token
    • Client ID and Client Secret: From the OAuth App created in Step 1
    👁 Entering MCP Server configuration details
  6. Click Login, and complete the sign-in.
  7. Click Continue, and the Advanced options section opens.

  8. In the MCP Server Description field, enter a description that helps Gemini Enterprise understand what the server does and when to use it. For more information, see Write effective MCP server descriptions and instructions.

  9. Click Continue.

  10. In the Configure your data connector section, select the Location of your data connector from the Multi-region field list.

  11. In Your data connector name, enter a name for your data store.

  12. Click Create. Gemini Enterprise creates your data store and displays your data stores on the Data Stores page.

    Note: By default, no tools or actions from your custom MCP servers are enabled. You must enable the tools or actions.

Step 3: Enable actions

After creating the custom MCP server data store, you must enable at least one tool or action before it can be used in Gemini Enterprise.

  1. Go to your custom MCP server data store.

  2. Open the Actions tab and select Reload custom actions to reauthenticate.

    Note: This action performs a tools/list call on the MCP server to retrieve available tools, which are then displayed on the screen.

  3. Select the actions to enable.
  4. Click Enable actions. 👁 Enabling actions

Step 4: Connect the MCP server data store to a Gemini Enterprise app

After creating the custom MCP server data store and enabling actions, you must connect the data store to a Gemini Enterprise app before it can be used.

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Gemini Enterprise page.
  2. From the navigation menu, click Apps.
  3. Select the Gemini Enterprise app where you want to connect your data store.
  4. From the navigation menu of the app, click Connected data sources.
  5. Click Add existing data stores and select your data store.
  6. Click Connect. 👁 Connecting data store

Step 5: Query live Workday data with natural language

With the data store connected, Gemini Enterprise users can interact with live Workday data using natural language from the Gemini Enterprise web application. Each user authenticates with their own Connect AI credentials via the OAuth flow on first use.

  1. Open Gemini Enterprise, click Connections and authorize CData Connect AI. 👁 Authorizing CData Connect AI
  2. Ask natural language questions about your Workday data:
    • "Show me all Workday data from the last 30 days"
    • "What are the top records in Workday data by revenue?"
    • "List all active Workday data and their current status"
    • "Summarize Workday data activity for this quarter"
  3. The agent automatically discovers available connections in Connect AI, identifies the most relevant Workday connection, generates SQL, and returns results — all without requiring the user to write queries or understand the underlying data structure.

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Gemini Enterprise and other AI platforms, try CData Connect AI today!