Analytics Services
AWS Data Exchange
What it is:
AWS Data Exchange makes it easy to find, subscribe to, and use third-party datasets in the cloud, such as demographics, weather, or financial data.
Why it matters:
- Enables external data integration for AI/ML models
- Automates data subscription, delivery, and updates
- Helps enhance model accuracy with premium datasets
Typical Use Cases:
- Enriching ML models with weather or location data
- Using healthcare or financial datasets from third parties
- Automating ingestion of licensed datasets into S3 or Redshift
Amazon EMR
What it is:
Amazon EMR is a managed cluster platform that runs big data frameworks like Apache Spark, Hive, and Hadoop for data processing and transformation at scale.
Why it matters:
- Supports large-scale data preprocessing for ML
- Easily processes petabytes of structured or unstructured data
- Integrates with S3, HDFS, Redshift, and more
Typical Use Cases:
- Preprocessing datasets for ML models
- Running Spark ML jobs at scale
- Performing distributed feature engineering
AWS Glue
What it is:
AWS Glue is a serverless data integration service that discovers, prepares, and combines data for analytics and ML, using ETL pipelines.
Why it matters:
- Automates data cataloging, cleaning, and transformation
- Integrates directly with S3, Redshift, and RDS
- Supports Python- and Spark-based ETL jobs
Typical Use Cases:
- Cleaning and joining ML training data
- Building ETL pipelines for AI dashboards
- Creating feature pipelines for SageMaker models
AWS Glue DataBrew
What it is:
Glue DataBrew is a visual data preparation tool for users who want to clean and normalize data without writing code.
Why it matters:
- Enables non-developers to explore and prepare datasets
- Provides 250+ built-in transformations (e.g., deduplication, joins)
- Accelerates data prep for ML pipelines and dashboards
Typical Use Cases:
- Exploring AI/ML datasets visually
- Removing outliers, fixing nulls before model training
- Generating reusable transformations with no code
AWS Lake Formation
What it is:
Lake Formation helps you build, secure, and manage data lakes on AWS. It simplifies ingesting, cataloging, and securing data from various sources into S3.
Why it matters:
- Makes it easier to create a centralized data lake for AI
- Provides fine-grained data access control
- Integrates with Glue, Athena, Redshift, and SageMaker
Typical Use Cases:
- Creating data lakes for AI training and analysis
- Managing data access permissions for teams
- Curating and tagging ML training datasets
Amazon OpenSearch Service
What it is:
OpenSearch Service is a managed search and analytics engine that supports full-text search, log analytics, and vector search for AI use cases.
Why it matters:
- Supports semantic search and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
- Integrates with Bedrock Knowledge Bases
- Includes k-NN vector indexing for similarity search
Typical Use Cases:
- Powering AI chatbots with semantic search
- Storing and retrieving embeddings for vector search
- Building analytics dashboards from log data
Amazon QuickSight
What it is:
QuickSight is AWS’s business intelligence and data visualization tool that helps create dashboards, reports, and charts from various data sources.
Why it matters:
- Allows real-time visualization of AI/ML results
- Supports embedded dashboards in apps
- Uses ML-powered insights (e.g., anomaly detection, forecasting)
Typical Use Cases:
- Visualizing model predictions or performance metrics
- Creating dashboards for business stakeholders
- Monitoring usage and accuracy trends for ML solutions
Amazon Redshift
What it is:
Amazon Redshift is a fully managed cloud data warehouse that lets you analyze structured and semi-structured data at scale using SQL.
Why it matters:
- Integrates with SageMaker for in-database ML
- Supports Redshift ML to run models directly in the warehouse
- Handles petabyte-scale analytics
Typical Use Cases:
- Running AI inference directly in SQL queries
- Building AI-powered dashboards from transactional data
- Training ML models on aggregated data