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Amazon EMR

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Company health

Employee growth
12% increase in the last year
Web traffic
3% decrease in the last quarter

Ratings

G2
4.1/5
(63)
Glassdoor
3.7/5
(206324)

Amazon EMR description

Amazon EMR provides the tools to analyze large datasets. It's a managed service, meaning Amazon handles the setup and running of the system for you. This makes it faster and cheaper to process data than managing your own infrastructure. EMR is specifically designed for large amounts of data, using a technology called Hadoop.


Who is Amazon EMR best for

Amazon EMR simplifies big data processing with a managed Hadoop framework. Users praise its easy cluster management, diverse application support, and scaling options. Some find troubleshooting challenging and initial setup slow. Best for medium to large companies needing efficient, scalable data analysis.

  • Ideal for medium to large enterprises (100-1000+ employees).

  • Suitable for businesses across all industries.


Amazon EMR features

Supported

Amazon EMR is designed for petabyte-scale data analytics, enabling efficient processing of massive datasets.

Supported

Amazon EMR supports a variety of open-source frameworks, including Spark, Hive, and Presto, allowing developers to build applications using familiar tools.

Supported

Amazon EMR offers performance-optimized versions of Spark, Hive, and Presto, enabling up to 2X faster time-to-insights.

Supported

Amazon EMR provides EMR Studio, an IDE with managed Jupyter notebooks and Apache Spark UI, simplifying application development and debugging.

Supported

Amazon EMR allows easy scaling of big data workloads with auto-scaling and dynamic allocation of cluster resources.

Supported

Amazon EMR Serverless eliminates the need for cluster management, providing a serverless option for running big data applications.

Supported

Amazon EMR integrates with various AWS services like Amazon S3, DynamoDB, and Redshift, enabling comprehensive big data solutions.


Amazon EMR reviews

We've summarised 63 Amazon EMR reviews (Amazon EMR G2 reviews) and summarised the main points below.

Pros of Amazon EMR
  • Easy cluster launching and cloning
  • Wide range of supported applications (Spark, Hive, Hadoop, Trino, etc.)
  • Easy scaling options (containers, CPU, spot instances)
  • Great UI for debugging Spark jobs
  • Cost-effective for long-running jobs with S3 storage
Cons of Amazon EMR
  • Difficult troubleshooting with support
  • Notebook interface lacks features like auto-completion
  • Slow initial cluster spin-up times (15-30 minutes)
  • High cost, especially for persistent clusters
  • Complex spot instance management, lacks easy fallback

Amazon EMR pricing

The commentary is based on 5 reviews from Amazon EMR G2 reviews.

Amazon EMR pricing is generally perceived as cost-effective for on-demand big data processing, particularly with spot instances. However, some users find the combined EC2 and processing costs high, especially for persistent clusters. Careful cost monitoring and optimization are recommended.

See the Amazon EMR pricing page.


Amazon EMR alternatives

  • Logo of Cloudera
    Cloudera
    Open-source tools suite managing big data, uncovering hidden insights.
    Read more
  • Logo of Google Cloud Dataproc
    Google Cloud Dataproc
    Managed Spark and Hadoop clusters for easy big data analysis.
    Read more
  • Logo of Cloudera Data Platform
    Cloudera Data Platform
    Hybrid data cloud platform for faster, simpler analytics.
    Read more
  • Logo of Azure Databricks
    Azure Databricks
    Unified analytics platform for massive data insights and AI.
    Read more
  • Logo of Render
    Render
    Effortless cloud hosting and deployments for websites and apps.
    Read more
  • Logo of Discovery
    Discovery
    AI-powered product analytics for data-driven decisions and growth.
    Read more

Amazon EMR FAQ

  • What is Amazon EMR and what does Amazon EMR do?

    Amazon EMR is a managed cluster platform that simplifies running big data frameworks like Apache Spark, Hadoop, and Hive on AWS. It enables processing and analysis of vast datasets for diverse applications, from log analysis and machine learning to data warehousing. It offers cost-effective data processing with flexible scaling options.

  • How does Amazon EMR integrate with other tools?

    Amazon EMR integrates with various AWS services, including Amazon S3, DynamoDB, and Redshift, enabling comprehensive big data solutions. It supports several open-source frameworks like Spark, Hive, and Presto, allowing developers to leverage familiar tools.

  • What the main competitors of Amazon EMR?

    Top alternatives to Amazon EMR include Google Cloud Dataproc, Cloudera Data Platform, and Azure Databricks. These competitors offer similar big data processing capabilities using Spark, Hadoop, and other open-source tools. They provide managed services, simplifying infrastructure management and scaling for large datasets.

  • Is Amazon EMR legit?

    Yes, Amazon EMR is a legitimate and widely used service for big data processing. It's a safe and reliable choice for companies needing to analyze large datasets, backed by Amazon's robust infrastructure and security measures. It offers various features like Spark, Hive, and Presto for efficient data analysis.

  • How much does Amazon EMR cost?

    Amazon EMR pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model based on the type and number of EC2 instances you use, plus storage and other AWS services. Contact AWS sales for custom pricing information. Is EMR worth it? The cost-effectiveness depends on your specific needs and usage.

  • Is Amazon EMR customer service good?

    Some users found troubleshooting incidents with Amazon EMR support challenging. While the platform offers debugging support, interacting with support during problem resolution is perceived as difficult by some. Others appreciate the control over configuration.


Reviewed by

MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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