We recently completed a proof-of-concept (POC) that involved pulling data out of DynamoDB and into Redshift so that business users could analyze the data in an ad hoc manner with JasperSoft. JasperSoft and Redshift are touted as the new way to do data warehousing in the cloud and we were using DynamoDB as a sort of alternative to something Hadoop based.
We were amazed at how quickly and easily you could get a business-user friendly view of the data we had stored in DynamoDB using Redshift and JasperSoft. The actual human effort required to copy some initial data from DynamoDB into Redshift and then view it in JasperSoft was barely a few hours. However, there were a few unforseen technical challenges, but these challenges were not insurmountable. Ultimately we will continue with this technology combination because, as well as being easy to deploy and use, it gives us confidence that we can scale the POC into a “real” solution, and that our growing data needs will be taken care of.