Amazon Redshift
This is the third in a series of Visual Connections blogs focused on exploring Amazon Web Services (AWS). Our goal is to share industry insights and help you make knowledgeable decisions as you shift your business to the cloud.
Amazon Redshift: Data Storage at Petabyte Scales
By: Fred Deese
Visual Connections President & CEO
In my previous blog, I discussed the value of big data analytics and introduced you to AWS big data solutions. I think we can all agree that in the modern world of today, businesses and agencies no longer have to settle for unstructured data, as data analytics makes sense of all that information, separating the signal from the noise and improving operations as a result. Now, let's jump right into data warehousing.
The Value of Data Warehousing
Data Warehousing allows businesses and agencies to collect, manage, and analyze data from heterogeneous sources to provide meaningful business insights. A Data warehouse is typically the core of the Business Intelligence (BI) system, which is built for data analysis and reporting. Think of data warehousing as electronic storage of large amounts of business information (data) designed for query and analysis that is processed in a timely manner so that executives can make operational decisions. Some of the most common sectors where data warehousing is essential include the public sector, airlines, healthcare, banking, telecommunications, and the investment and insurance sector.
Data Warehouses help to assimilate several sources of data, lessening stress on production systems.
Data Warehousing Tools
There are many Data Warehousing tools available in the market; however, I'd like to explore one that has essentially captured our attention at Visual Connections. Let's discuss Amazon Redshift. What exactly is Amazon Redshift? Amazon Redshift is a cost-effective, fast, and completely managed data warehouse. Amazon Redshift gives you petabyte-scale data warehousing plus exabyte scale data lake analytics collectively in one service. Here's a quick break-out of Amazon Redshift benefits:
Compatibility
SQL
Designed to Integrate with AWS Services
Cost
Attractive and transparent pricing
Inexpensive with no upfront cost
1/10th the cost of traditional on-premises data warehouse solutions
Charges based on the provisioned resource
Storage
Massive Storage capacity, basic setup can give you a petabyte range of data storage
You can choose Dense Storage type of compute nodes
Opportunities to go well beyond petabyte of data range
Security
Data is kept secure by enabling SSL over the wire
Industry-standard Encryption Techniques
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for network isolation
Speed
Fast, optimized for data warehousing
Significantly faster than traditional on-premises data warehouses
Scalability, scale in seconds to meet changing storage demands
Easy to Use
Fully managed
Easy backup
Fault tolerant
Making business forecast and predictions manually are a thing of the pass. Amazon Redshift does all the work for you. Amazon Redshift was built to help you drive business growth with customized analytics tools. Redshift is also a plus for large-scale data migrations.
How does Amazon Redshift Work?
Redshift links to SQL-based clients and BI tools via a column-orientated database. Employing PostgreSQL 8, Redshift automates many of the procedures correlated with BI and generates reports with deep data insights. Redshift data warehouses contain nodes in a cluster. Each cluster runs its own Redshift engine with at least one database. This makes it easy to scale the technology to suit your business needs.
Additionally, sort keys form the pillar of the service, and this service comes with application patches and even the quintessential OS upgrade. Here a mock-up of the underlying architecture:
Amazon Redshift Data Warehouse Architecture as shown in the Amazon Database Developer Guide.
Amazon Redshift is enhanced by its ability to integrate with other AWS services seamlessly. The endless integration possibilities enable your business or agency to move and transform data quickly using secure data features.
Amazon Redshift Vs. On-premises Data Warehouse
At the belly of it all is the allocation of time and resources. On-premises data warehouses involve substantial time and resource to manage, notably for large data-sets. There is a significant difference in the financial cost associated with developing, maintaining, and expanding self-managed on-premise data warehouses. When it comes to grow there is a constant trade-off on what data to load and what data to archive just so that you can control costs, keep ETL complexity to a minimal, and deliver quality.
Amazon Redshift has been proven to significantly lowers the operational overhead of a data warehouse. In addition, Redshift Spectrum also makes it easy to analyze large amounts of data in its native format. That means you don’t have to load the data.
Redshift = Better Performance
Up against traditional databases and analytics workloads here are some reasons why Redshift has faster performance:
Column-based Systems: while traditional row-based systems are ideal for transaction processing, columnar data storage is perfect for data warehousing and analytics. The columns involved in the queries are isolated and processed, data is stored sequentially on the storage media, and fewer I/Os are required. Additionally, this allows for advanced compression abilities.
Massively Parallel Processing (MPP): automatic distribution of data and query load across all nodes, and the ability to efficiently add nodes equals fast and scalable query performance.
Queries with no loading or ETL required: Redshift Spectrum allows you to run queries against exabytes of data in Amazon S3 (no loading or ETL required).
Businesses and agencies who are looking to get more out of their data practice can rely on Visual Connections as their trusted Amazon Redshift advisor. Let’s discuss your data needs!
Blog 3 in this Series
See other blogs in this Series
The AWS Shift: Business Benefits
Big Data & Data Analytics Meets AWS
Fred Deese | Visual Connections President & CEO
After nearly a decade of providing advanced web and application development services to both the private and public sector, Fred Deese founded Visual Connections, an information technology consulting firm, in 2007. As Chief Executive Officer of the company, Fred is focused on new business development, overall company positioning, and client relationships.
Since the company's inception, he has held project management positions on many prominent and complex commercial and government IT projects, personally providing the services that have made Visual Connections widely recognized by its customers for its innovative technologies and quality work. See Full Bio Here