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Amazon EMR pros and cons

3.9 out of 5
1,107 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Amazon EMR stands out due to its ability to resize clusters, offering a significant advantage over other Hadoop and big data solutions.
The setup process is straightforward and simple.
Its flexibility and scalability are highlighted as critical benefits.
Managed services make it stable and scalable, with features like leveraging Apache Hudi for change data capture.
Amazon EMR facilitates the handling of huge data volumes, providing impressive processing speed and storage capacity.

CONS

There are concerns about backwards compatibility as new versions may break old ones, and legacy versions are not supported.
Configuring clusters and ensuring they run correctly is complex and time-consuming.
There is a lack of control over scaling costs, especially with multiple users.
Initial startup times are slow, affecting efficiency.
Spark jobs tend to take longer than expected, and integration with other services needs improvement.
 

Amazon EMR Pros review quotes

it_user744720 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2017
The ability to resize the cluster is what really makes it stand out over other Hadoop and big data solutions.
JC
Jun 14, 2024
The security of the managed workflow and the managed services are the best features for us. Since we inherited their security model and it's all managed services, those are the key benefits for our clients.
reviewer1724670 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 2, 2021
One of the valuable features about this solution is that it's managed services, so it's pretty stable, and scalable as much as you wish. It has all the necessary distributions. With some additional work, it's also possible to change to a Spark version with the latest version of EMR. It also has Hudi, so we are leveraging Apache Hudi on EMR for change data capture, so then it comes out-of-the-box in EMR.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon EMR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
MM
Apr 8, 2025
I rate Amazon EMR as ten out of ten.
RahulJadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 17, 2022
In Amazon EMR it is easy to rebuild anything, easy to upgrade and has good fault tolerance.
FN
Mar 6, 2021
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
Prashant  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
May 18, 2022
The solution is pretty simple to set up.
Ilya Afanasyev - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 3, 2022
When we grade big jobs from on-prem to the cloud, we do it in EMR with Spark.
Quan Vu - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 22, 2023
It allows users to access the data through a web interface.
reviewer1612005 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 25, 2021
This is the best tool for hosts and it's really flexible and scalable.
 

Amazon EMR Cons review quotes

it_user744720 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2017
There were times where they would release new versions and it seemed to end up breaking old versions, which is very strange.
JC
Jun 14, 2024
The solution can become expensive if you are not careful.
reviewer1724670 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 2, 2021
Amazon EMR is continuously improving, but maybe something like CI/CD out-of-the-box or integration with Prometheus Grafana.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon EMR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
MM
Apr 8, 2025
There is room for improvement with respect to retries, handling the volume of data on S3 buckets, cluster provisioning, scaling, termination, security, and integration between services like S3, Glue, Lake Formation, and DynamoDB.
RahulJadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 17, 2022
Amazon EMR can improve by adding some features, such as megastore services and HiveServer2. Additionally, the user interface could be better, similar to what Apache service provides, cross-platform services.
FN
Mar 6, 2021
The dashboard management could be better. Right now, it's lacking a bit.
Prashant  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
May 18, 2022
We don't have much control. If we have multiple users, if they want to scale up, the cost will go and increase and we don't know how we can restrict that price part.
Ilya Afanasyev - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 3, 2022
The problem for us is it starts very slow.
Quan Vu - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 22, 2023
There is no need to pay extra for third-party software.
reviewer1612005 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 25, 2021
The most complicated thing is configuring to the cluster and ensure it's running correctly.