AWS launched its Data Exchange service this week, which enables AWS customers to find, subscribe to and use third-party data in the cloud.
According to the company, the service removes the need to build and maintain infrastructure for data storage, delivery, billing and entitling. Previously, when customers subscribed to third-party data, they often had to wait weeks to receive shipped physical media, manage sensitive credentials for multiple File Transfer Protocol (FTP) hosts and periodically check for updates, or code to several disparate APIs, methods that were inconsistent with modern architectures, according to AWS.
“Customers have asked us for an easier way to find, subscribe to, and integrate diverse data sets into the applications, analytics, and machine-learning models they’re running on AWS. Unfortunately, the way customers exchange data hasn’t evolved much in the last 20 years,” said Stephen Orban, general manager of AWS Data Exchange. “AWS Data Exchange gives our customers the ability to quickly integrate third-party data in the workloads they’re migrating to the cloud, while giving qualified data providers a modern and secure way to package, deliver, and reach the millions of AWS customers worldwide.”
Prior to subscribing to a data product, customers can review the price and terms of use that providers make publicly available.
Once subscribed, customers can use the AWS Data Exchange API or console to ingest data they subscribe to directly into Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to use across the portfolio of cloud services in AWS.
To bolster security, AWS Data Exchange prohibits sharing sensitive personal data (such as personal health information) as well as any personal data that is not already lawfully and publicly available.
AWS customers can get started with AWS Data Exchange here.
