Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS Database Migration Service VS Apache Airflow

Compare AWS Database Migration Service VS Apache Airflow and see what are their differences

AWS Database Migration Service logo AWS Database Migration Service

AWS Database Migration Service allows you to migrate to AWS quickly and securely. Learn more about the benefits and the key use cases.

Apache Airflow logo Apache Airflow

Airflow is a platform to programmaticaly author, schedule and monitor data pipelines.
  • AWS Database Migration Service Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-30
  • Apache Airflow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-17

AWS Database Migration Service features and specs

  • Minimal Downtime
    AWS Database Migration Service ensures minimal downtime during the database migration process, making it ideal for applications that require continuous availability.
  • Supports Multiple Database Engines
    It supports migration of data between a wide variety of database engines including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and more.
  • Cost-Effective
    With a pay-as-you-go pricing model, users only pay for the compute resources used during the migration process, making it a cost-effective solution.
  • Managed Service
    As a fully managed service, it reduces the administrative overhead associated with database migrations, including hardware provisioning, software patching, and monitoring.
  • Continuous Data Replication
    It supports continuous data replication with high availability, allowing for nearly real-time data synchronization between the source and target databases.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Database Migration Service

  • Complex Initial Setup
    The initial setup and configuration can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with AWS services and database migration processes.
  • Limited Customization
    Being a managed service, it offers limited customization options compared to self-managed solutions, which might be a drawback for users with specific requirements.
  • Latency Issues
    For large datasets, there might be latency issues during migration, depending on the network conditions and the geographical locations of the source and target databases.
  • Dependency on AWS Ecosystem
    The service is tightly integrated with AWS, which means it may not be as effective or easy to use with non-AWS environments, creating potential vendor lock-in.
  • Performance Overheads
    There may be performance overheads associated with running the migration tasks, which could impact the performance of the source or target databases during the migration process.

Apache Airflow features and specs

  • Scalability
    Apache Airflow can scale horizontally, allowing it to handle large volumes of tasks and workflows by distributing the workload across multiple worker nodes.
  • Extensibility
    It supports custom plugins and operators, making it highly customizable to fit various use cases. Users can define their own tasks, sensors, and hooks.
  • Visualization
    Airflow provides an intuitive web interface for monitoring and managing workflows. The interface allows users to visualize DAGs, track task statuses, and debug failures.
  • Flexibility
    Workflows are defined using Python code, which offers a high degree of flexibility and programmatic control over the tasks and their dependencies.
  • Integrations
    Airflow has built-in integrations with a wide range of tools and services such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Apache Hadoop, making it easier to connect to external systems.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Airflow

  • Complexity
    Setting up and configuring Apache Airflow can be complex, particularly for new users. It requires careful management of infrastructure components like databases and web servers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Airflow can be resource-heavy in terms of both memory and CPU usage, especially when dealing with a large number of tasks and DAGs.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve can be steep for users who are not familiar with Python or the underlying concepts of workflow management.
  • Limited Real-Time Processing
    Airflow is better suited for batch processing and scheduled tasks rather than real-time event-based processing.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing task dependencies in complex DAGs can become cumbersome and may lead to configuration errors if not properly handled.

AWS Database Migration Service videos

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Apache Airflow videos

Airflow Tutorial for Beginners - Full Course in 2 Hours 2022

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS Database Migration Service and Apache Airflow)
Data Integration
100 100%
0% 0
Workflow Automation
0 0%
100% 100
ETL
100 100%
0% 0
Automation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using AWS Database Migration Service and Apache Airflow. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AWS Database Migration Service and Apache Airflow

AWS Database Migration Service Reviews

Best ETL Tools: A Curated List
Mostly Batch: Matillion ETL had some real-time CDC based on Amazon DMS that has been deprecated. The Data Loader does have some CDC, but overall, the Data Loader is limited in functionality, and if it’s based on DMS, it will have the limitations of DMS as well.
Source: estuary.dev

Apache Airflow Reviews

5 Airflow Alternatives for Data Orchestration
While Apache Airflow continues to be a popular tool for data orchestration, the alternatives presented here offer a range of features and benefits that may better suit certain projects or team preferences. Whether you prioritize simplicity, code-centric design, or the integration of machine learning workflows, there is likely an alternative that meets your needs. By...
Top 8 Apache Airflow Alternatives in 2024
Apache Airflow is a workflow streamlining solution aiming at accelerating routine procedures. This article provides a detailed description of Apache Airflow as one of the most popular automation solutions. It also presents and compares alternatives to Airflow, their characteristic features, and recommended application areas. Based on that, each business could decide which...
Source: blog.skyvia.com
10 Best Airflow Alternatives for 2024
In a nutshell, you gained a basic understanding of Apache Airflow and its powerful features. On the other hand, you understood some of the limitations and disadvantages of Apache Airflow. Hence, this article helped you explore the best Apache Airflow Alternatives available in the market. So, you can try hands-on on these Airflow Alternatives and select the best according to...
Source: hevodata.com
A List of The 16 Best ETL Tools And Why To Choose Them
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows. The platform features a web-based user interface and a command-line interface for managing and triggering workflows.
15 Best ETL Tools in 2022 (A Complete Updated List)
Apache Airflow programmatically creates, schedules and monitors workflows. It can also modify the scheduler to run the jobs as and when required.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Airflow should be more popular than AWS Database Migration Service. It has been mentiond 75 times since March 2021. 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.

AWS Database Migration Service mentions (31)

  • Choosing the right, real-time, Postgres CDC platform
    The major infrastructure providers offer CDC products that work within their ecosystem. Tools like AWS DMS, GCP Datastream, and Azure Data Factory can be configured to stream changes from Postgres to other infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 3 Proven Patterns for Reporting with Serverless
    The second big drawback is speed. There will be more latency in this scenario. How much latency depends upon the environment. If there is RDBMS in the source, AWS Data Migration Service will at worst take around 60 seconds to replicate. That cost needs to be accounted for. Secondarily, many triggering events are leveraged which happen fairly quickly but they do add up. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • RDS Database Migration Series - A horror story of using AWS DMS with a happy ending
    Amazon Database Migration Service might initially seem like a perfect tool for a smooth and straightforward migration to RDS. However, our overall experience using it turned out to be closer to an open beta product rather than a production-ready tool for dealing with a critical asset of any company, which is its data. Nevertheless, with the extra adjustments, we made it work for almost all our needs. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Aurora serverless v1 to v2 upgrade pointers?
    Does AWS DMS make sense here? Doesn't the aforementioned "snapshot+restore to provisioned and upgrade" method suffice? I wanted to get some opinions before deep diving into the docs for yet another AWS service. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Using Amazon RDS Postgres as a read replica from an external Database
    One easy solution is AWS DMS. I use it for on-going CDC replication with custom transforms, but you can use it for simple replication too. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Apache Airflow mentions (75)

  • The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome
    Is this really true? Something that can be supported by clear evidence? I’ve seen this trotted out many times, but it seems like there are interesting Apache projects: https://airflow.apache.org/ https://iceberg.apache.org/ https://kafka.apache.org/ https://superset.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • 10 Must-Know Open Source Platform Engineering Tools for AI/ML Workflows
    Apache Airflow offers simplicity when it comes to scheduling, authoring, and monitoring ML workflows using Python. The tool's greatest advantage is its compatibility with any system or process you are running. This also eliminates manual intervention and increases team productivity, which aligns with the principles of Platform Engineering tools. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Data Orchestration Tool Analysis: Airflow, Dagster, Flyte
    Data orchestration tools are key for managing data pipelines in modern workflows. When it comes to tools, Apache Airflow, Dagster, and Flyte are popular tools serving this need, but they serve different purposes and follow different philosophies. Choosing the right tool for your requirements is essential for scalability and efficiency. In this blog, I will compare Apache Airflow, Dagster, and Flyte, exploring... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • AIOps, DevOps, MLOps, LLMOps – What’s the Difference?
    Data pipelines: Apache Kafka and Airflow are often used for building data pipelines that can continuously feed data to models in production. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Data Engineering with DLT and REST
    This article demonstrates how to work with near real-time and historical data using the dlt package. Whether you need to scale data access across the enterprise or provide historical data for post-event analysis, you can use the same framework to provide customer data. In a future article, I'll demonstrate how to use dlt with a workflow orchestrator such as Apache Airflow or Dagster.``. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS Database Migration Service and Apache Airflow, you can also consider the following products

AWS Glue - Fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service

Make.com - Tool for workflow automation (Former Integromat)

Xplenty - Xplenty is the #1 SecurETL - allowing you to build low-code data pipelines on the most secure and flexible data transformation platform. No longer worry about manual data transformations. Start your free 14-day trial now.

ifttt - IFTTT puts the internet to work for you. Create simple connections between the products you use every day.

Skyvia - Free cloud data platform for data integration, backup & management

Microsoft Power Automate - Microsoft Power Automate is an automation platform that integrates DPA, RPA, and process mining. It lets you automate your organization at scale using low-code and AI.