Amazon Redshift automatically enables short query acceleration

Posted on: Aug 8, 2018

Amazon Redshift now enables short query acceleration by default to speed up execution of short-running queries such as reports, dashboards, and interactive analysis. Short query acceleration uses machine learning to provide higher performance, faster results, and better predictability of query execution times. 

We plan to enable short query acceleration (SQA) for all clusters in the coming weeks. The exact timing of the change depends on the AWS Region that your cluster is in and your cluster's maintenance window. You can opt out of this change by deselecting the 'Enable short query acceleration' check box in the Workload Management configuration on your Amazon Redshift console. If you do so, SQA won't be enabled when we update your cluster to the latest build. Also we won’t enable SQA if you have tried it in the past, and switched it off. To learn more, see our documentation.

We strongly recommend to have SQA enabled, and Maximum run time set to ‘dynamic.’ With SQA, short-running queries begin executing more quickly, and users see results sooner. The acceleration varies based on workload, though we have observed 3x improvements in short query performance for internal workloads.

You can still choose to immediately turn on or turn off SQA via selecting or deselecting ‘Enable short query acceleration’ checkbox in the Workload Management configuration on your Amazon Redshift console. Please do reach out to us if you have feedback regarding Short Query Acceleration via sqa-feedback@amazon.com. Refer to the AWS Region Table for Amazon Redshift availability.