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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, especially for companies already using AWS services. Users appreciate its easy scaling and integration with services like S3. EMR is a cost-effective solution for long-running batch jobs. Keep in mind that some users find troubleshooting challenging and initial cluster start times can be slow.

  • Perfect for large enterprises (1001+ employees) needing robust data processing & analytics capabilities.

  • Versatile tool suitable for any industry seeking scalable big data solutions & seamless AWS integrations.


Amazon EMR features

Supported

Speed and Value: Run big data applications and petabyte-scale data analytics faster, and at less than half the cost of on-premises solutions.

Supported

The latest open-source frameworks: Build applications using the latest open-source frameworks, with options to run on customized Amazon EC2 clusters, Amazon EKS, AWS Outposts, or Amazon EMR Serverless.

Supported

Faster time-to-insights: Get up to 2X faster time-to-insights with performance-optimized and open-source API-compatible versions of Spark, Hive, and Presto.

Supported

Easy builds with EMR Notebooks: Easily develop, visualize, and debug your applications using EMR Notebooks and familiar open-source tools in EMR Studio.

Supported

Simplified development: Simplify big data application development and deployment with Amazon EMR Studio, an integrated development environment (IDE) that provides managed Jupyter notebooks and Apache Spark UI.

Supported

Easy Scaling: Scale your big data workloads easily with auto-scaling and dynamic allocation of cluster resources. Optimize price-performance by customizing EC2 instances.

Supported

Serverless option: Run big data workloads without managing clusters with Amazon EMR Serverless, a serverless option in EMR. Pay only for the resources you consume.

Supported

Integrations: Integrate with other AWS services, including Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Redshift, for a complete big data solution.


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 to launch, clone, and scale EMR clusters.
  • Supports a wide range of applications (Spark, Hive, Hadoop, etc.)
  • Seamless integration with other AWS services like S3.
  • Cost-effective for long-running batch jobs with spot instances.
  • Simplified management of big data infrastructure.
Cons of Amazon EMR
  • Difficult troubleshooting and limited support resources.
  • Slow initial cluster startup times can cause delays.
  • Notebook interface lacks features like auto-completion.
  • Cost can be high, especially for long-running clusters.
  • Complex configuration for security and authentication.

Amazon EMR pricing

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

We find that EMR's pricing is generally considered competitive, especially with options like spot instances. However, some users have noted that costs can accumulate with EC2 charges and data processing fees, making it potentially expensive for some workloads. Careful cost management is recommended.

See the Amazon EMR pricing page.


Amazon EMR alternatives

  • 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
  • Logo of Cloudera
    Cloudera
    Enterprise-grade data platform built on open source for powerful insights.
    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. We find it makes it easy to process and analyze vast amounts of data, and scales to meet your needs.

  • How does Amazon EMR integrate with other tools?

    We find that Amazon EMR integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3, DynamoDB, and Redshift. This allows for a comprehensive big data solution within the AWS ecosystem.

  • What the main competitors of Amazon EMR?

    We find that the main competitors to Amazon EMR are Google Cloud Dataproc, Cloudera Data Platform, and Azure Databricks. These alternatives offer similar big data processing capabilities with varying approaches to managed services and platform features.

  • Is Amazon EMR legit?

    Yes, Amazon EMR is a legitimate service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). We find it's a widely used and trusted platform for big data processing and analysis. It's safe and reliable, backed by the security and infrastructure of AWS.

  • How much does Amazon EMR cost?

    Amazon EMR pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model. You pay for the underlying EC2 instances and other AWS services used, like S3. We find that estimating costs requires careful consideration of your specific cluster configuration and usage patterns.

  • Is Amazon EMR customer service good?

    We've found that Amazon EMR's customer support receives mixed reviews. While some users appreciate the control and configuration options, others find troubleshooting and incident support challenging. This suggests there's room for improvement in their support services.


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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