Redshift Database
What is a Redshift Database?
A Redshift Database is a cloud-based, big data warehouse solution offered by Amazon. The platform provides a storage system that lets companies store petabytes of data in easy-to-access “clusters” that can be queried in parallel.
Each of these nodes can be accessed independently by users and applications. Redshift is designed to be used with a variety of data sources and data analytics tools and is compatible with several existing SQL-based clients.
The platform’s architecture makes it easy to create a Redshift connection to a variety of business intelligence tools.
Every Redshift data warehouse is fully managed, so administrative tasks like configuration, maintenance backups, and security are completely automated.
Redshift is designed for big data and can scale easily thanks to its modular node design. Thanks to its multi-layered structure, Redshift lets multiple queries to be processed simultaneously, reducing wait times.
Additionally, Redshift clusters can be divided further into slices, which helps provide more granular insights into data sets.
Redshift databases also take full advantage of Amazon’s cloud server infrastructure, including access to their S3 to back up their data.
How can I use a Redshift Database?
One of the most effective uses for Redshift databases is in organizations that have a high demand for analytics and access to data.
Thanks to its vertical design for clusters, different departments and teams can have their own node, and easily access others without increasing wait times or causing bottlenecks.
In financial services, Redshift could be used to analyze historical market data or to create predictive models.
Organizations that have variable data needs can also benefit from using Redshift. Nodes can be activated and deactivated on demand, so companies can go from gigabytes to petabyte-level storage in minutes.
One common use for the platform is to store log data for analysis—information that includes web logs, clickstream data, and more. This is useful in marketing and online advertising as well as UX design.
In business intelligence, using a redshift database is useful to generate multiple unique dashboards and allow for better ad hoc analysis.
Companies that collect data from disparate sources and channels can also benefit from Redshift’s modular design, thanks to a variety of connectors and compatibility with SQL and several other database client languages.
