AWS launches Data Lab program in India

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday said it was making its AWS Data Lab program available in India.

The complimentary program is targeted at accelerating joint engineering efforts between enterprise customers and AWS technical experts to tackle complex data, architecture challenges using AWS products and services, the company said.

AWS Data Lab, which primarily has three offerings in the form of the build lab, the design lab, and the resident architect, can be used for activities or initiatives such as database migration, setting up data lakes along with analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning projects, and application modernization.

The program’s build lab, according to AWS, is a two to five-day joint session with a technical customer team.

The design lab, on the other hand, is one and a half to two-day engagement with enterprises who are in need for a real-world architecture recommendation on AWS and are yet to build out their cloud operations, the company said, adding that this guidance is provided by AWS experts.

Both the design lab and the build lab engagements are either hosted online or in person, AWS explained on the Data Lab portal.

“Customers leave the engagement with an architecture or working prototype that is custom fit to their needs, a path to production, deeper knowledge of AWS databases, analytics, AI/ML, serverless, and/or containers services, and new relationships with AWS service experts,” AWS said.

Resident architects under the program will provide AWS enterprise customers with technical and strategic guidance in refining, implementing, and accelerating their data strategy and solutions over a six-month engagement.

Resident architects usually engage with chief data officers, vice presidents of data architecture and other builders within an enterprise, AWS added.

AWS Data Lab, according to AWS India & South Asia’s President of Commercial Business, Puneet Chandok, can benefit enterprises by helping them build internal data analytics skills, which may involve upskilling current staff through on-the-job training, other training courses and partnering with organizations.

In India, PayU Finance has used AWS Data Lab to move away from legacy infrastructure to build a scalable data platform suited to its business requirements, PayU Finance’s Chief Data Scientist Piyush Gupta said in a press statement.

The Data Lab in India joins AWS’ network of Data Labs across the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Korea and the ASEAN region.