AWS Data Lab

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AWS Data Lab offers accelerated, joint engineering engagements between customers and AWS technical resources to create tangible deliverables that accelerate databases, analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), application & infrastructure modernization, and DataOps initiatives.

Data Lab has three offerings - the Build Lab, the Design Lab, and Resident Architect. The Build Lab is a two to five day intensive build with a technical customer team. The Design Lab is a one-half to two day engagement for customers who need a real-world architecture recommendation based on AWS expertise, but are not yet ready to build. Both engagements are hosted either online or at one of our in-person AWS Data Lab hubs. The Resident Architect provides AWS customers with technical and strategic guidance in refining, implementing, and accelerating their data strategy and solutions over a six-month engagement.

During Build and Design Labs, AWS Data Lab Solutions Architects and AWS service experts support the customer by providing prescriptive architectural guidance, sharing best practices, and removing technical roadblocks. Customers leave the engagement with an architecture or working prototype that is custom fit to their needs, a path to production, deeper knowledge of AWS databases, analytics, AI/ML, serverless, and/or containers services, and new relationships with AWS service experts.

Resident Architect helps customers (Chief Data Officers, VPs of Data Architecture, and Builders) make informed choices and tradeoffs about accelerating their data, analytics, and AI/ML workloads and implementations.

Learn how customers are using the AWS Data Lab >>

How it works

Think big

The AWS Data Lab focuses on bold technology ideas that deliver game-changing results for our customers. Leading up to your Data Lab engagement, you will have a series of calls with an AWS Data Lab Solutions Architect to walk through your business use case and understand your goals. At this stage, the focus is on bridging the gap between innovation and technology. Our multi-disciplined Data Lab Solutions Architects ensure that proposed solutions solve business problems and are designed with the future in mind.

Start small

In the AWS Data Lab, your team will be hyper-focused on the pre-defined use case that you selected for the lab.

In a Build Lab, your team will spend two to five days building hands-on with your data in your own AWS account with the guidance of AWS service experts and your dedicated AWS Data Lab Solutions Architect. Your days will consist of: build, test, review progress, repeat! On the last day of your lab, your team will leave with a validated architecture and working prototype to use as a guide for your production deployment.

In a Design Lab, your team will spend one-half to two days in a non-build exercise, discussing architecture pattern and anti-pattern designs for your specific use case, best practices for building, and recommended strategies for design and delivery. Your team will leave with a document reflecting the Data Lab's recommendations for your design approach and architecture.

Scale fast

Our customers tell us that by engaging with the AWS Data Lab, they have been able to accelerate their projects by an average of two months. Customers attribute this acceleration to the AWS Data Lab helping them make architectural and operational decisions faster, remain hyper-focused on a single project over a series of days, and learn new skills first-hand from AWS experts. Following your Data Lab engagement, your team remains in communication with your Data Lab Solutions Architect until your project is successfully implemented.

Example use cases

Database migrations

Customers working on database migration initiatives like moving from self-managed to managed database services, moving away from commercial databases to open source databases on AWS, or building new databases using open-source engines such as MySQL and PostgreSQL frequently leverage the AWS Data Lab. Typical activities covered in the lab include defining a migration strategy, conducting database migration, performing cutover, setting up disaster recovery and testing failover, and discussing best practices for production monitoring and management.

Data lakes and analytics

AWS Data Lab has worked with hundreds of customers on data lake scenarios including migrating an existing data lake and/or Hadoop system from on-premises to AWS, building a brand new data lake, or improving or adding new features to an existing data lake. Common lab activities include identifying a data lake and data migration strategy, ingesting, cleansing, enriching, and processing data, managing schema and metadata, processing unstructured data, and building analytics, reporting, and visualization capabilities.

Real-time data pipelines

Customers work with the AWS Data Lab to focus on designing and building near real-time data pipelines. These solutions have powered everything from application integration and data scientist needs to training custom Machine Learning models and executing real-time predictions. Many of our customers also use the lab to enrich their data with AWS AI services such as Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Textract, Amazon Transcribe, and Amazon Translate.

Graph analytics

Customers are increasingly eager to build with graph technology in the AWS Data Lab. Two common use cases that customers work on in the lab include building a native graph analytics application to allow exploration of relationships in data, and re-platforming an existing graph engine to Amazon Neptune to increase scalability and reduce graph query response time.

Primary customer benefits

Robust solutions based on proven designs

AWS Data Lab has helped hundreds of customers over the years create innovative technology for their companies. From solutions specific to the healthcare or education industries, to prototype designs for media & entertainment customers and nonprofit organizations, Data Lab has guided customers to design and build a wide range of solutions. By working in the Data Lab, customers receive expert guidance on architectural decisions and design patterns that have been proven over time to deliver the innovation, performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency they need.

"When the team came back from the AWS Data Lab, they came back with a clear direction on how we were going to solve our problems and take this solution to production. If you have an opportunity to design a solution which has this kind of infinite capacity, you should take it. Design for infinite.” Robert Hunt, VP Software Engineering, Nasdaq.”

Deeper knowledge of AWS services

Customers gain first-hand access to AWS expert resources while working in the AWS Data Lab. AWS service experts engage based on your level of need to deep dive, troubleshoot, share best practices, and get you the answers you need to architect on AWS with confidence.

"Working directly with Amazon's architects is a major accelerator, especially in a business driven by speed to market. The AWS Data Lab prepped for us, were in the room to support our build, and we walked out days later with a functioning product. The new products we are launching are game-changing and the added knowledge we have will help us continue to lead the market." Luis Lafer-Sousa, President - US, TownSq.

Accelerated path to production

By spending a focused week in the AWS Data Lab working side-by-side with AWS experts, the average customer cuts two months off of their development time.

"What we did in four days would have taken us weeks, maybe months to achieve" Marcio Castilho, Chief Architect Officer, KnowBe4.

“We would not have been able to dedicate the same amount of time to the development, nor been able to resolve our questions and problems as quickly without the AWS Data Lab. Doing the same work outside of the AWS Data Lab would have cost us significantly more in funds and time.” Amar Vyas, Global Data Strategy Director, PHD Global Business.