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Amazon Redshift vs Ansible

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Software

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Ansible logo

Ansible

Software

Simple, agentless IT automation

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; Ansible the open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Ansible covers Playbooks.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and Ansible actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Ansible differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftAnsible
Pricing modelusage-basedopen-source
PlatformsWebLinux, Windows, Mac, Api

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown), founded (2012).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Amazon Redshift

  • Columnar Storage
  • Massively Parallel
  • Machine Learning
  • AQUA Acceleration
  • Data Sharing
  • Federated Query
  • Concurrency Scaling
  • S3

Only in Ansible

  • Playbooks
  • Inventory management
  • Module library
  • Variables and templating
  • Handlers
  • Roles
  • Async tasks
  • Plugins

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon Redshift

  • Business intelligencenot Ansible
  • Data warehousingnot Ansible
  • Real-time analyticsnot Ansible
  • Reportingnot Ansible
  • Machine learningnot Ansible

Ansible

  • Configuration managementnot Amazon Redshift
  • Server provisioningnot Amazon Redshift
  • Application deploymentnot Amazon Redshift
  • Multi-node managementnot Amazon Redshift
  • Orchestrationnot Amazon Redshift

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Amazon Redshift

  • On-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery
  • Requires significant manual tuning including managing concurrency scaling costs and configuring Workload Management queues
  • Performance degrades without proper design of distribution keys and sort keys
  • Limited elastic resize options - can only halve or double current cluster size
  • AWS lock-in makes it unsuitable for multi-cloud architectures

Ansible

  • The open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • Event-Driven Ansible and the AI coding assistant are platform features rather than open source ones
  • Red Hat does not publish platform pricing
  • Running open source Ansible at scale means building the control plane the platform otherwise provides

Pricing, plan by plan

Amazon Redshift

Free
  • Free TrialFree
    • 750 DC2.Large hours
    • 2 months free
    • Full features
  • On-Demand$0.25/hour
    • Pay per node hour
    • All features
    • Standard support

Ansible

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Community edition
    • Unlimited nodes
    • Full functionality
  • Ansible Automation Platform$5000/year
    • Enterprise support
    • Ansible Tower
    • Advanced features

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon Redshift if

  • You need columnar storage.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want massively parallel.
Amazon Redshift review

Choose Ansible if

  • You need playbooks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
  • You also want inventory management.
Ansible review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Ansible better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Ansible at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Ansible?
Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Ansible at Free.
Does Amazon Redshift or Ansible run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. Ansible runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Amazon Redshift best used for?
Amazon Redshift is most often used for business intelligence, data warehousing, real-time analytics, reporting. Of those, business intelligence and data warehousing are not what Ansible is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Ansible cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Ansible covers Playbooks, Inventory management, Module library, Variables and templating.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Amazon Redshift: What deployment options does Amazon Redshift offer?

Redshift offers Provisioned Cluster (with RA3 or DC2 nodes) and Serverless options to match varying workloads. The new Redshift RG instance family, powered by Graviton, delivers 2.4x faster performance than RA3 at 30% lower cost per vCPU.

Source
Amazon Redshift: What does Amazon Redshift cost?

Provisioned cluster pricing: RA3 on-demand starts at $1.086/hour for ra3.xlplus. Serverless costs approximately $0.375 per RPU-hour with 4-RPU minimum (roughly $1.50/hour active workload). Managed storage costs $0.024/GB-month.

Source
Amazon Redshift: Does Redshift work with data lakes?

Yes, Redshift's integrated data lake query engine processes workloads on Apache Iceberg tables and other supported formats in Amazon S3, allowing you to run SQL analytics across your data warehouse and data lake from the same engine.

Source
Amazon Redshift: Is there a free tier for Amazon Redshift?

AWS offers a free trial with $300 USD in Serverless credits valid for 90 days, but Redshift is not part of the permanent AWS Free Tier.

Source
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