AWS Lake Formation Reviews

Name: AWS Lake Formation
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 3.9 (11 reviews)

3.9 out of 5

11 reviews
72% willing to recommend

What is AWS Lake Formation?

AWS Lake Formation is a service that makes it easy to set up a secure data lake in days. A data lake is a centralized, curated, and secured repository that stores all your data, both in its original form and prepared for analysis.

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AWS Lake Formation is the #13 ranked solution in top Cloud Data Warehouse solutions. PeerSpot users give AWS Lake Formation an average rating of 7.8 out of 10. AWS Lake Formation is most commonly compared to Databricks: AWS Lake Formation vs Databricks. AWS Lake Formation is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 65% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 20% of all views.

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

Featured AWS Lake Formation reviews

Ramesh Raghavan

US South Lead, Accenture AWS Business Group at Accenture

There are a couple of areas for improvement with Lake Formation. One of the main challenges, especially when dealing with rich media content, like in MarTech (Marketing Technology) or ad agencies, is its versatility. Some clients feel that Lake Formation doesn’t meet their needs and they tend to prefer competitor products for those specific use cases. The second area for improvement is in data governance. Specifically, Lake Formation could enhance its capabilities in audit logs, real-time monitoring, and advanced data governance. This includes managing the entire data lineage—where the data originated, how it moves, and where it’s currently stored. The visibility of the data as it evolves is crucial, and that’s where more advanced governance capabilities would be beneficial.

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Maxwell Seefeld

President & CEO at Y12

The most valuable features of AWS Lake Formation are its reliability and the ability to make a backup of the data lake. I can easily move data from cold storage to regular storage. I also like its stability, as I have not had a single downtime in a year and a half.

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Burak Koban

AWS Solution Architect at bcaa

AWS Lake Formation lets you see all your data and tables on one screen. It's a good product to have everything under one service. In order to be able to do ETL jobs and create some tables from the S3 buckets, you have to use a few different services. With AWS Lake Formation, you can merge everything into one single service and have all your data under that service.

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AWS Lake Formation mindshare

As of August 2025, the mindshare of AWS Lake Formation in the Cloud Data Warehouse category stands at 5.8%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse

PeerResearch reports based on AWS Lake Formation reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	Cloud Data Warehouse	Aug 20, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Aug 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS Lake Formation vs Snowflake	Aug 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS Lake Formation vs Azure Data Factory	Aug 20, 2025	Download
Comparison	AWS Lake Formation vs BigQuery	Aug 20, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Databricks	4.1	8.5%	96%	91 interviews Add to research
Azure Data Factory	4.0	7.2%	92%	91 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

AWS Lake Formation offers strong security features, seamless AWS ecosystem integration, centralized data management, and privacy compliance capabilities. Users appreciate its reliability, stability, and ability to automate data classification and enforce policies. It supports data platform architecture by integrating seamlessly with AWS technologies. Users value its capability to centralize access management and simplify governance. The service's ability to manage data efficiently aids in decision-making and enhances the overall data strategy.

"There is no doubt that this place exceeded my expectations with its incredible ambiance, attentive service, and mouthwatering menu."
"We have observed measurable benefits in terms of cost savings, time savings, resource savings, and efficiency improvements in our workflows."
"I can easily move data from cold storage to regular storage."

Room for Improvement

AWS Lake Formation requires enhancements in orchestration, automation, and data visualization tools like QuickSight and Glue. Integrating third-party libraries is not effective. Pricing and professional services are costly. Users face difficulty with non-AWS integrations and lack straightforward access control. User experience is hindered by a not user-friendly interface and slow response times. Improvements in data governance, audit logs, and monitoring are needed. SageMaker integration and better UI responsiveness are desired by multiple users.

"If I could improve AWS Lake Formation, I would add more integrations with SageMaker."
"Lake Formation could enhance its capabilities in audit logs, real-time monitoring, and advanced data governance."
"You need to have data experience to use the product."

Pricing

AWS Lake Formation's pricing is complex, involving various factors like enterprise licenses and service contracts. Costs extend beyond Lake Formation alone, requiring additional AWS services like S3, Glue, and Athena for full functionality. While the solution is perceived as expensive, it is cost-effective compared to other cloud options and valuable for querying and insights. Pricing can vary widely depending on how services are purchased and used in conjunction with related AWS technologies.

"AWS Lake Formation is a bit expensive."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily utilize AWS Lake Formation for managing and securing cloud data lakes. They focus on storing raw data, controlling data access, defining roles and permissions, and building infrastructure. AWS Lake Formation supports ETL tasks and enhances data governance, crucial for privacy control and schema management. It helps in organizing, scaling, and securing data effectively, making it essential for data management and archiving, while also facilitating user access to structured and unstructured data.

Service and Support

Support for AWS Lake Formation varies. Some users report efficiency, with responses often within hours, while others face challenges in reaching the appropriate technical staff due to the complexity of issues. Recurring discussions with account managers can prioritize requests. Ratings range from satisfactory to excellent. Although mixed experiences occur, many describe the team as helpful and skilled. Premium support often provides prompt assistance, reflecting positive interactions for several users.

Deployment

AWS Lake Formation's initial setup is generally straightforward, though it involves a learning curve. Experienced users find it intuitive, but those new to cloud services may require support. Teams handling maintenance vary in size and are globally dispersed. Usage is easier for AWS-certified personnel, yet more templates and pre-configured queries are needed for wider accessibility. Deploying depends on technical proficiency and some experience, particularly with the CLI and advanced configurations, is beneficial.

Scalability

Most users acknowledge AWS Lake Formation's scalability capabilities, especially in its third version, which introduced improvements. Multiple teams utilize it, with engineering staff handling infrastructure tasks. Medium to enterprise businesses benefit from its scalable nature, while some are still optimizing scaling processes. Users find CLI usage for scaling manageable. Recent updates have enhanced deployment speed for BI tools and ML applications. The solution’s scalability varies based on deployment methods.

Stability

AWS Lake Formation exhibits strong stability. Users report no major issues, highlighting a high performance. Initial problems were addressed, resulting in a smoother experience over time. Users note that the service does not crash or freeze and has maintained zero downtime for extended periods. Many rate the stability highly, noting improvement and ease after deployment.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

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