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Apache Kylin VS Amazon Athena

Compare Apache Kylin VS Amazon Athena and see what are their differences

Apache Kylin logo Apache Kylin

OLAP Engine for Big Data

Amazon Athena logo Amazon Athena

Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run.
  • Apache Kylin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-29
  • Amazon Athena Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-17

Apache Kylin features and specs

  • High Query Performance
    Apache Kylin is designed for high-performance, low-latency analytics on large datasets. Its OLAP engine pre-computes and stores aggregated queries, which speeds up query responses significantly.
  • Scalability
    Kylin can handle massive volumes of data, making it suitable for large scale data warehousing needs. It is designed to scale out by distributing the workload across a cluster of servers.
  • Integration with Hadoop Ecosystem
    Kylin integrates seamlessly with the Hadoop ecosystem, leveraging tools like Hive, HBase, and Spark to facilitate data processing and storage, thereby enhancing its functionality and compatibility.
  • Support for Multi-dimensional Analysis
    It provides strong multidimensional analysis capabilities, allowing for complex queries using well-known BI tools like Tableau and Power BI.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Kylin

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up and configuring Apache Kylin can be complex and time-consuming, requiring a deep understanding of the Hadoop ecosystem and its components.
  • Resource Intensity
    The pre-computation of data cubes and their storage can be resource-intensive, consuming significant memory and storage capacity.
  • Limited Flexibility in Querying
    Pre-aggregated cube-based analysis may not cover all ad-hoc queries. Kylin's strength lies in pre-aggregated queries but may fall short in handling highly dynamic, on-the-fly queries.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Maintaining Kylin’s precomputed cubes can become cumbersome, particularly as data evolves or changes frequently, requiring updates or recalculations of cubes.

Amazon Athena features and specs

  • Serverless
    Athena is serverless, which means there's no need to set up or manage any infrastructure. You can start querying data immediately without worrying about managing underlying servers.
  • Pay-as-you-go
    You only pay for the queries you run, and the cost is based on the amount of data scanned by the queries. This is cost-effective, especially for infrequent querying.
  • Scalable
    Athena scales automatically, enabling it to handle large datasets and concurrent queries efficiently, without manual intervention.
  • Integration with AWS ecosystem
    Athena integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like S3, Glue, and QuickSight, making it easy to build comprehensive data pipelines and analytics solutions.
  • Supports standard SQL
    Athena uses standard SQL for querying, which makes it easy for users familiar with SQL to get started quickly.
  • Quick to deploy
    Since there is no infrastructure to manage, you can start querying your data within minutes of setting up Athena.
  • Supports a variety of data formats
    Athena supports multiple data formats including CSV, JSON, ORC, Avro, and Parquet, providing flexibility in data ingestion and storage.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon Athena

  • Cost of scanning large datasets
    While the pay-as-you-go model is beneficial, querying large datasets frequently can become expensive.
  • Performance
    For very complex queries or extremely large datasets, Athena's performance might not match that of a dedicated data warehouse solution.
  • Limited built-in visualization
    Athena does not provide built-in data visualization tools, so you'll need to integrate with other services like QuickSight or third-party tools for visual analytics.
  • Learning curve for optimal usage
    Even though Athena supports SQL, optimizing performance and cost efficiency might require a good understanding of how Athena processes data.
  • Data preparation
    Data might require preprocessing or organization in a specific way for optimal performance with Athena, which could add to the setup time and complexity.
  • Cold start latency
    Athena can experience latency during query initiation, known as cold start latency, which can be an issue for time-sensitive analytics.

Analysis of Amazon Athena

Overall verdict

  • Amazon Athena is a powerful and flexible tool for users who need a cost-effective, straightforward solution for querying and analyzing data stored in S3 without the overhead of managing servers. Its serverless architecture, scalability, and wide integration with other AWS services make it a reliable choice for quick data analytics tasks.

Why this product is good

  • Amazon Athena is a serverless query service that makes it easy to analyze large-scale datasets directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. It is especially advantageous because it is fully managed, meaning there is no need to set up or manage infrastructure. It automatically scales, so users only pay for the queries they run, making it cost-effective for intermittent data analysis tasks. Visualizing data becomes straightforward with its integration with AWS QuickSight or other BI tools. Additionally, its support for a wide range of data formats and ease of use through the AWS Management Console further enhance its appeal for data analysts and developers.

Recommended for

  • Data analysts and data scientists needing fast, ad-hoc querying capabilities.
  • Organizations looking to reduce costs associated with traditional data warehousing.
  • Developers and teams who want to integrate SQL-based data querying into their applications without backend infrastructure management.
  • Businesses using or planning to use AWS S3 for data storage and requiring analysis tools that seamlessly integrate within the AWS ecosystem.

Apache Kylin videos

Extreme OLAP Analytics with Apache Kylin - Big Data Application Meetup

More videos:

  • Review - Apache Kylin: OLAP Cubes for NoSQL Data stores
  • Review - Installing Apache Kylin in Cloudera Quickstart VM Sandbox

Amazon Athena videos

AWS Big Data: What is Amazon Athena?

More videos:

  • Review - Deep Dive on Amazon Athena - AWS Online Tech Talks
  • Review - Deep Dive on Amazon Athena - AWS Online Tech Talks

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Kylin and Amazon Athena)
Databases
25 25%
75% 75
Big Data
100 100%
0% 0
Database Management
0 0%
100% 100
Relational Databases
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon Athena seems to be a lot more popular than Apache Kylin. While we know about 23 links to Amazon Athena, we've tracked only 1 mention of Apache Kylin. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Kylin mentions (1)

  • Apache Kafka Use Cases: When To Use It & When Not To
    A Kafka-based data integration platform will be a good fit here. The services can add events to different topics in a broker whenever there is a data update. Kafka consumers corresponding to each of the services can monitor these topics and make updates to the data in real-time. It is also possible to create a unified data store through the same integration platform. Developers can implement a unified store either... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago

Amazon Athena mentions (23)

  • Vector: A lightweight tool for collecting EKS application logs with long-term storage capabilities
    In this article, we present an architecture that demonstrates how to collect application logs from Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) via Vector, store them in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for long-term retention, and finally query these logs using AWS Glue and Amazon Athena. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Introducing Iceberg Table Engine in RisingWave: Manage Streaming Data in Iceberg with SQL
    However, Iceberg defines the storage format, leaving the complexities of data ingestion and processing, especially for real-time streams, to separate systems. While query engines like Trino or Athena excel with static datasets, they aren't designed for continuous, low-latency ingestion and transformation of streaming data into Iceberg. This often forces engineers to integrate multiple complex tools, increasing... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Deploying a Complete Machine Learning Fraud Detection Solution Using Amazon SageMaker : AWS Project
    SageMaker Feature Store keeps track of the metadata of stored features (e.g. Feature name or version number) so that you can query the features for the right attributes in batches or in real time using Amazon Athena , an interactive query service. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Spatial Search of Amazon S3 Express One Zone Data with Amazon Athena and Visualized It in QGIS
    Prepare GIS data for use with Amazon Athena. This time, we created four types of sample data in QGIS in advance. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Enhancing AWS Athena Efficiency - Building a Python Athena Client
    If you have not heard about AWS Athena, I encourage you to take a look at this service. You can read more about it here. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Kylin and Amazon Athena, you can also consider the following products

Spring Batch - Level up your Java code and explore what Spring can do for you.

phpMyAdmin - phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web.

Amazon Redshift - Learn about Amazon Redshift cloud data warehouse.

SQLyog - Webyog develops MySQL database client tools. Monyog MySQL monitor and SQLyog MySQL GUI & admin are trusted by 2.5 million users across the globe.

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

Sequel Pro - MySQL database management for Mac OS X