We are happy to share some insights about Amazon Web Services drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
We recently published three Ventana Research 2023 Data Platforms Value Indexes, which evaluate technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined analytic 
and operational data platform support. At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use cases, there is a clear choice between analytic and operational data platforms to best meet your organization’s needs. We developed three technology assessment and buyers’ guides to focus on overall data platform requirements as well as specific analytic data platform and operational data platform use cases.
In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology built on evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria and derived from RFP responses and a vendor selection process for analytics and business intelligence. For each of the Value Indexes, we evaluated Amazon Web Services and other vendors in seven categories: five relevant to the product — Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability — and two related to the vendor — TCO/ROI and Validation. To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our market research, including our Benchmark Research on Analytics and Data.
Amazon Web Services offers a range of database cloud services targeted at specific use cases and data models, including the Amazon Redshift cloud data warehouse and the Amazon Aurora distributed operational database, which provides compatibility with MySQL and PostgreSQL.
In the overall Data Platforms Value Index, Amazon Web Services was categorized as an Exemplary Vendor, ranking sixth overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked seventh in
Product Experience, where it was designated a Value Index Leader in Manageability and Reliability. It ranked fifth in Customer Experience. Its overall performance was impacted by its lower rankings in Usability and Adaptability, which represent 25% of the weighting in the overall Value Index.
Our assessment finds that Amazon Web Services could perform better by examining its placement as seventh in Product Experience. Here, there are opportunities to utilize the company’s investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), for example, to provide conversational experiences. In Adaptability, where it ranked eighth, it could examine advances in the areas of user and process integration.
In the Analytic Data Platforms Value Index, Amazon Web Services was categorized as a Vendor of Assurance, ranking sixth overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked eighth in Product Experience, where it was designated a Value Index Leader in Manageability and Reliability. It ranked sixth in Customer Experience and ranked best in Validation.
Amazon Web Services was also categorized as an Exemplary Vendor in the Operational Data Platforms Value Index, ranking sixth overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked ninth in Product Experience, where it was designated a Value Index Leader in the Reliability and Manageability categories. It ranked fifth in Customer Experience and ranked best in the Validation category.
This assessment was based on Amazon Web Services’ data platform products generally available as of September 30, 2022.
Organizations should evaluate their data platform requirements for operational and analytic workloads to ensure the existing products and vendors are meeting their needs. If their current data platforms are not satisfying those requirements, they should consider whether Amazon Web Services can help meet their needs.
This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of data platforms in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:
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