What is AWS Glue and Why are Pipelines Important?

From Source to Analytics

Preparation of data is a necessary step towards ensuring that analysis results will prove useful and in a format that’s easy and fast.  Analysis can now be completed in minutes as opposed to weeks and setup can be done with minimal effort. AWS Glue offers several significant advantages, making it an appealing choice for data integration projects:

1. Serverless Architecture: AWS Glue operates on a serverless framework, which means users don’t need to manage or set up their servers. This feature significantly simplifies the entire data integration process by removing the complexities associated with infrastructure management.
2. Efficient Job Scheduling and Management: AWS Glue provides robust tools that simplify the execution and monitoring of data integration jobs. These jobs can be automatically triggered based on specific schedules or events or run on-demand, providing flexibility in how tasks are managed and executed.
3. Cost-Effectiveness: One of AWS Glue’s notable benefits is its cost efficiency. The service follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where charges are based only on the resources consumed during job execution. This approach makes AWS Glue a budget-friendly option, especially for varying workload sizes.
4. Automatic Code Generation: AWS Glue can automatically generate ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) scripts for data processing. These scripts are customizable and can be written in Scala or Python, depending on user preference or specific project requirements.
5. Collaborative Environment: The platform promotes collaboration within organizations, enabling multiple teams to work simultaneously on different data integration projects. This collaborative feature helps streamline the efforts and reduce redundant work.
6. Speedy Data Analysis: With AWS Glue, the time it takes to process and analyze data is considerably reduced. This quicker data turnaround helps businesses make timely decisions, gain insights faster, and improve overall productivity.

From Source to Analytics

Preparation of data is a necessary step towards ensuring that analysis results will prove useful and in an easy-to-use and fast format. Analysis can now be completed in minutes as opposed to weeks, and setup can be done with minimal effort. AWS Glue offers several significant advantages, making it an appealing choice for data integration projects:

1. Serverless Architecture: AWS Glue operates on a serverless framework, which means users don’t need to manage or set up their servers. This feature significantly simplifies the entire data integration process by removing the complexities associated with infrastructure management.
2. Efficient Job Scheduling and Management: AWS Glue provides robust tools that simplify the execution and monitoring of data integration jobs. These jobs can be automatically triggered based on specific schedules or events or run on-demand, providing flexibility in how tasks are managed and executed.
3. Cost-Effectiveness: One of AWS Glue’s notable benefits is its cost efficiency. The service follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where charges are based only on the resources consumed during job execution. This approach makes AWS Glue a budget-friendly option, especially for varying workload sizes.
4. Automatic Code Generation: AWS Glue can automatically generate ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) scripts for data processing. These scripts are customizable and can be written in Scala or Python, depending on user preference or specific project requirements.
5. Collaborative Environment: The platform promotes collaboration within organizations, enabling multiple teams to work simultaneously on different data integration projects. This collaborative feature helps streamline the efforts and reduce redundant work.
6. Speedy Data Analysis: With AWS Glue, the time it takes to process and analyze data is considerably reduced. This quicker data turnaround helps businesses make timely decisions, gain insights faster, and improve overall productivity.

Discover

• • An Easy Catalog: AWS Glue logs all metadata kept in data stores on an AWS account regardless of location. The catalog comprises all categories and formats, including table definitions, schemas, and other control information. It can compute statistics, manage partitions, and run queries efficiently. It also catalogs how data changes over time with snapshots.

• • Data Discovery: AWS Glue has a feature called crawlers that develop interconnectivity between a source and a target data store.  Afterward, it sifts through a prioritized list of classifiers to determine the schema for the data and generates subsequent metadata for the catalog.  Crawlers can be set up to run on certain time triggers, including on a schedule, on-demand, or after-event triggers.

• • Schema Controls: The AWS Glue Schema Registry is a set of manual controls for validating the data stream using Apache Avro schemas. It uses Apache-licensed serializers and deserializers to integrate Java applications intended for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, and AWS Lambda (link). This helps AWS Glue significantly improve data quality and avoid data loss due to sudden changes.

• • Rapid Scaling: Like many other services on AWS, AWS Glue also supports autoscaling, which allows for either sharply increasing or decreasing resources depending on the workload’s demand. Resources are only procured as needed, and AWS Glue will never overprovision more resources than necessary, helping to avoid needing to pay for unused assets.

Preparation

• • Duplicate Reduction: It’s not uncommon to have duplicated data bits across data sources.  AWS Glue helps to clean out these superfluous instances through pre-trained machine learning using another service feature called FindMatches.  Even if the two records are slightly different, FindMatches can still recognize both as matching or not. It will delete the match, retaining at least one version across the databases within its control.

• • ETL Code: AWS Glue ETL (extract, transform, and load) has development endpoints for editing, debugging code, and stress-testing with options for what IDE or notebook it’s done on.  On the side, there are a bunch of customizable templates for readers and writers that can be imported to an AWS Glue job or shared with other developers via GitHub.

• • Normalizing Code: AWS Glue’s DataBrew has an interactive and basic UI for data analysts and scientists who may not be familiar with programming.  It’s point-and-click, so moving data between database types and AWS services is very simple.

• • Automated Sorting of Critical Data: Any critical data that AWS Glue sorts through in the pipeline and data lakes are automatically identified, and options for hiding or replacing are provided.  This can include persons’ names, SSNs, driver’s licenses, and IP addresses.

Integration

• • Integration Simplification: Interactive Sessions in AWS Glue help streamline the development of data integration processes, allowing engineers to fully experiment with data, whether using an IDE or a notebook.

• • Notebooks: Studio Job Notebooks, an integral service within AWS Glue, assists developers in quickly starting by scheduling notebook code as AWS Glue jobs. This thereby integrates and simplifies the data preparation for analytics, machine learning, and application development.

• • Job Scheduling:  Job Scheduling in AWS Glue is designed to be flexible, supporting various scheduling needs based on schedule, event triggers, or manual initiation. This service autonomously handles dependencies, filters out bad data, and manages job retries, while progress can be conveniently monitored through Amazon CloudWatch.
• • Git Integration:  With Git Integration, AWS Glue connects with popular platforms like GitHub and AWS CodeCommit. This feature facilitates the retention of job change history. It enables updates through DevOps practices before deployment, ensuring that job updates are seamless, whether code-based or visually implemented. Automation tools such as AWS CodeDeploy can be used to deploy AWS Glue jobs effortlessly.

• • Data Lake Ease of Access:  AWS Glue enhances access to data lakes by supporting systems like Apache Hudi, Apache Iceberg, and Linux Foundation Delta Lake. By maintaining consistency in storage within an S3-based data lake, AWS Glue ensures that your data remains robust and reliable.

• • Quality Assurance:  The Quality Assurance capabilities of AWS Glue ensure high data quality and consistency across data lakes and pipelines. This instills confidence in the integrity and reliability of the data being processed.

Shape

• • Ease of Use: AWS Glue’s ease of use is evident in its job editor, where defining ETL is as simple as clicking and dragging. The service auto-generates code to extract and transform any volume of data, simplifying the process for users.
  • Shape it Whenever: Continuous data consumption while simultaneously cleaning the data without interrupting the streaming process is easy to achieve. This flexibility enables users to shape the data according to their needs whenever required.

Discover

• • An Easy Catalog: AWS Glue logs all metadata kept in data stores on an AWS account regardless of location. The catalog comprises all categories and formats, including table definitions, schemas, and other control information. It can compute statistics, manage partitions, and run queries efficiently. It also catalogs how data changes over time with snapshots.

• • Data Discovery: AWS Glue has a feature called crawlers that develop interconnectivity between a source and a target data store.  Afterward, it sifts through a prioritized list of classifiers to determine the schema for the data and generates subsequent metadata for the catalog.  Crawlers can be set up to run on certain time triggers, including on a schedule, on-demand, or after-event triggers.

• • Schema Controls: The AWS Glue Schema Registry is a set of manual controls for validating the data stream using Apache Avro schemas. It uses Apache-licensed serializers and deserializers to integrate Java applications intended for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, and AWS Lambda (link). This helps AWS Glue significantly improve data quality and avoid data loss due to sudden changes.

• • Rapid Scaling: Like many other services on AWS, AWS Glue also supports autoscaling, which allows for either sharply increasing or decreasing resources depending on the workload’s demand. Resources are only procured as needed, and AWS Glue will never overprovision more resources than necessary, helping to avoid needing to pay for unused assets.

Preparation

• • Duplicate Reduction: It’s not uncommon to have duplicated data bits across data sources.  AWS Glue helps to clean out these superfluous instances through pre-trained machine learning using another service feature called FindMatches.  Even if the two records are slightly different, FindMatches can still recognize both as matching or not. It will delete the match, retaining at least one version across the databases within its control.

• • ETL Code: AWS Glue ETL (extract, transform, and load) has development endpoints for editing, debugging code, and stress-testing with options for what IDE or notebook it’s done on.  On the side, there are a bunch of customizable templates for readers and writers that can be imported to an AWS Glue job or shared with other developers via GitHub.

• • Normalizing Code: AWS Glue’s DataBrew has an interactive and basic UI for data analysts and scientists who may not be familiar with programming.  It’s point-and-click, so moving data between database types and AWS services is very simple.

• • Automated Sorting of Critical Data: Any critical data that AWS Glue sorts through in the pipeline and data lakes are automatically identified, and options for hiding or replacing are provided.  This can include persons’ names, SSNs, driver’s licenses, and IP addresses.

Integration

• • Integration Simplification: Interactive Sessions in AWS Glue help streamline the development of data integration processes, allowing engineers to fully experiment with data, whether using an IDE or a notebook.

• • Notebooks: Studio Job Notebooks, an integral service within AWS Glue, assists developers in quickly starting by scheduling notebook code as AWS Glue jobs. This thereby integrates and simplifies the data preparation for analytics, machine learning, and application development.

• • Job Scheduling:  Job Scheduling in AWS Glue is designed to be flexible, supporting various scheduling needs based on schedule, event triggers, or manual initiation. This service autonomously handles dependencies, filters out bad data, and manages job retries, while progress can be conveniently monitored through Amazon CloudWatch.
• • Git Integration:  With Git Integration, AWS Glue connects with popular platforms like GitHub and AWS CodeCommit. This feature facilitates the retention of job change history. It enables updates through DevOps practices before deployment, ensuring that job updates are seamless, whether code-based or visually implemented. Automation tools such as AWS CodeDeploy can be used to deploy AWS Glue jobs effortlessly.

• • Data Lake Ease of Access:  AWS Glue enhances access to data lakes by supporting systems like Apache Hudi, Apache Iceberg, and Linux Foundation Delta Lake. By maintaining consistency in storage within an S3-based data lake, AWS Glue ensures that your data remains robust and reliable.

• • Quality Assurance:  The Quality Assurance capabilities of AWS Glue ensure high data quality and consistency across data lakes and pipelines. This instills confidence in the integrity and reliability of the data being processed.

Shape

• • Ease of Use: AWS Glue’s ease of use is evident in its job editor, where defining ETL is as simple as clicking and dragging. The service auto-generates code to extract and transform any volume of data, simplifying the process for users.
  • Shape it Whenever: Continuous data consumption while simultaneously cleaning the data without interrupting the streaming process is easy to achieve. This flexibility enables users to shape the data according to their needs whenever required.

Use Cases

AWS Glue offers robust capabilities to streamline and enhance how businesses handle data:

Simplified Querying on Amazon S3 Data Lakes

With Glue, businesses can directly run analytics on their data lakes. This removes the necessity to transfer data, enabling more efficient analysis at reduced times and costs.

Optimization of Data Warehouse Analytics

Glue’s ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities allow for the transformation and enrichment of log data from data warehouses. By writing custom ETL scripts, companies can streamline their data into more accessible and actionable formats.

Building Event-driven ETL Workflows

Event-driven ETL pipelines can enhance companies’ operational efficiency. ETL processes can be automatically triggered whenever new data becomes available, ensuring timely and up-to-date data.

Unified Data Viewing Across Multiple Sources

The Data Catalog facilitates a consolidated view of data across various sources. It assists in the discovery and searchability of datasets while securely storing essential metadata in a unified repository.

Use Cases

AWS Glue offers robust capabilities to streamline and enhance how businesses handle data:

Simplified Querying on Amazon S3 Data Lakes

With Glue, businesses can directly run analytics on their data lakes. This removes the necessity to transfer data, enabling more efficient analysis at reduced times and costs.

Optimization of Data Warehouse Analytics

Glue’s ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) capabilities allow for the transformation and enrichment of log data from data warehouses. By writing custom ETL scripts, companies can streamline their data into more accessible and actionable formats.

Building Event-driven ETL Workflows

Event-driven ETL pipelines can enhance companies’ operational efficiency. ETL processes can be automatically triggered whenever new data becomes available, ensuring timely and up-to-date data.

Unified Data Viewing Across Multiple Sources

The Data Catalog facilitates a consolidated view of data across various sources. It assists in the discovery and searchability of datasets while securely storing essential metadata in a unified repository.

AWS Glue Price

Like every other AWS service, AWS Glue ensures cost efficiency and scalability, preventing users from overpaying for overprovisioned resources. The system dynamically allocates resources based on the actual needs of the account, with minor variances in pricing depending on the account’s region. This ensures that users only pay for what they use, contributing to a more predictable and manageable billing structure. Amazon does try to lessen the burdens of operational costs through additional tools and leniencies:

• Resource Utilization: Charges are incurred based on the volume of data your jobs process and the number of Data Processing Units (DPUs) engaged. DPUs measure the computational power used to process and move data.
• No Initial Costs or Commitments: AWS Glue does not require any upfront payments or fixed-duration commitments. This flexibility is ideal for businesses scaling operations or managing varying workloads without significant upfront investment.
• Tools for Budget Management: AWS Glue provides cost estimation tools for financial planning and management. These tools help users forecast expenses and keep track of spending on data integration projects.

AWS Glue’s pricing model is designed to be economical, allowing you to expand your data operations as needed while maintaining control over your costs.

ETL Jobs and Crawlers

AWS Glue charges for ETL jobs and crawlers are based on the usage time, measured by the second. This precision ensures that users are not overcharged for idle times or overprovisioned resources. The cost is calculated based on the number of Data Processing Units (DPUs) consumed. DPUs represent the processing capacity required to run ETL jobs and crawlers efficiently. Users can choose the number of DPUs to allocate, balancing performance and cost.

Data Catalog

The AWS Glue Data Catalog charges a simplified monthly fee for storing and accessing metadata. This fee is based on the number of objects stored in the catalog, such as tables, partitions, and schemas.  For users who want to experiment with functionality and potential cost, the free tier benefits users by offering the first million stored objects and access sessions each month. This provides an economical way for users to manage their data without incurring additional costs.

AWS Glue DataBrew

AWS Glue DataBrew charges based on the number of instances active during data preparation and cleaning tasks. This pay-as-you-go model ensures users only pay for their actual data processing activities.

AWS Glue Schema Registry

The AWS Glue Schema Registry is a value-added feature that incurs no additional costs. It allows users to manage and enforce schema versions for data streaming applications without worrying about extra expenses.

Additional Cost Management Tools

AWS provides a free pricing calculator to help users anticipate and manage costs. This tool allows users to estimate the expenses associated with various AWS Glue services based on their expected usage patterns. Users can get a detailed cost breakdown and plan their budget by inputting specific details about their ETL jobs, crawlers, Data Catalog usage, and more.

AWS Glue Price

Like every other AWS service, AWS Glue ensures cost efficiency and scalability, preventing users from overpaying for overprovisioned resources. The system dynamically allocates resources based on the actual needs of the account, with minor variances in pricing depending on the account’s region. This ensures that users only pay for what they use, contributing to a more predictable and manageable billing structure.

• Resource Utilization: Charges are incurred based on the volume of data your jobs process and the number of Data Processing Units (DPUs) engaged. DPUs measure the computational power used to process and move data.
• No Initial Costs or Commitments: AWS Glue does not require any upfront payments or fixed-duration commitments. This flexibility is ideal for businesses scaling operations or managing varying workloads without significant upfront investment.
• Tools for Budget Management: AWS Glue provides financial planning and management cost estimation tools. These tools help users forecast expenses and keep track of spending on data integration projects.

AWS Glue’s pricing model is designed to be economical, allowing you to expand your data operations as needed while maintaining control over your costs.

ETL Jobs and Crawlers

AWS Glue charges for ETL jobs and crawlers are based on the usage time, measured by the second. This precision ensures that users are not overcharged for idle times or overprovisioned resources. The cost is calculated based on the number of Data Processing Units (DPUs) consumed. DPUs represent the processing capacity required to run ETL jobs and crawlers efficiently. Users can choose the number of DPUs to allocate, balancing performance and cost.

Data Catalog

The AWS Glue Data Catalog charges a simplified monthly fee for storing and accessing metadata. This fee is based on the number of objects stored in the catalog, such as tables, partitions, and schemas.  For users who want to experiment with functionality and potential cost, the free tier benefits users by offering the first million stored objects and access sessions each month. This provides an economical way for users to manage their data without incurring additional costs.

AWS Glue DataBrew

AWS Glue DataBrew charges based on the number of instances active during data preparation and cleaning tasks. This pay-as-you-go model ensures users only pay for their actual data processing activities.

AWS Glue Schema Registry

The AWS Glue Schema Registry is a value-added feature that incurs no additional costs. It allows users to manage and enforce schema versions for data streaming applications without worrying about extra expenses.

Additional Cost Management Tools

AWS provides a free pricing calculator to help users anticipate and manage costs. This tool allows users to estimate the expenses associated with various AWS Glue services based on their expected usage patterns. Users can get a detailed cost breakdown and plan their budget by inputting specific details about their ETL jobs, crawlers, Data Catalog usage, and more.

Closing Thoughts

AWS Glue is a powerful and versatile serverless data pipeline service that excels in seamlessly connecting and preparing data for analytics. It offers a comprehensive suite of features that facilitate the discovery, cataloging, and preparation of data from various sources, ensuring that data is consistently ready for analysis. The service’s robust capabilities in schema management, data cleaning, ETL job creation, and integration with other AWS services make it an invaluable tool for data engineers and scientists.

AWS Glue’s efficiency is further enhanced by its ability to scale resources dynamically, preventing overprovisioning and unnecessary costs. With advanced features like automated sorting of critical data, duplicate reduction through machine learning, and user-friendly interfaces for developers and non-developers, AWS Glue significantly simplifies the data preparation process.

The flexible pricing model charges based on usage time and resources, ensuring cost-effectiveness. Including a free tier and no additional charges for the Schema Registry provides an economical entry point for users looking to leverage its capabilities. AWS Glue’s pricing calculator also aids in anticipating costs, providing transparency and control over expenditures.

AWS Glue stands out as a comprehensive, cost-effective solution for organizations aiming to streamline their data preparation and ETL processes, enabling rapid, high-quality analytics. By automating the complex tasks of data discovery, transformation, and integration, AWS Glue empowers users to focus on deriving valuable insights from their data, driving better decision-making and business outcomes.

Closing Thoughts

AWS Glue is a powerful and versatile serverless data pipeline service that excels in seamlessly connecting and preparing data for analytics. It offers a comprehensive suite of features that facilitate the discovery, cataloging, and preparation of data from various sources, ensuring that data is consistently ready for analysis. The service’s robust capabilities in schema management, data cleaning, ETL job creation, and integration with other AWS services make it an invaluable tool for data engineers and scientists.

AWS Glue’s efficiency is further enhanced by its ability to scale resources dynamically, preventing overprovisioning and unnecessary costs. With advanced features like automated sorting of critical data, duplicate reduction through machine learning, and user-friendly interfaces for developers and non-developers, AWS Glue significantly simplifies the data preparation process.

The flexible pricing model charges based on usage time and resources, ensuring cost-effectiveness. Including a free tier and no additional charges for the Schema Registry provides an economical entry point for users looking to leverage its capabilities. AWS Glue’s pricing calculator also aids in anticipating costs, providing transparency and control over expenditures.

AWS Glue stands out as a comprehensive, cost-effective solution for organizations aiming to streamline their data preparation and ETL processes, enabling rapid, high-quality analytics. By automating the complex tasks of data discovery, transformation, and integration, AWS Glue empowers users to focus on deriving valuable insights from their data, driving better decision-making and business outcomes.