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Amazon Kinesis pros and cons

4.0 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Amazon Kinesis is highly scalable and capable of processing data from multiple sources with low latency.
The integration with Lambda functions allows for efficient data processing as soon as it is received.
Features like auto-scaling, replay, and multi-partition are highly valued for flexibility and efficiency.
The platform provides easy setup, is cloud-based, and supports multiple programming languages through a multilang daemon interface.
Users appreciate its robust real-time data streaming capabilities and strong technical support.

CONS

Kinesis lacks features for easier scalability and users find the default settings too low.
There are limitations in integration, such as the inability to connect multiple Streams to one Lambda, and lacks features like auto-scaling of streams.
Kinesis Data Analytics needs improvements, especially in user-friendliness and documentation for optimal sharding strategies.
Performance issues exist, such as a two-minute maximum time delay for live streaming and limitations on file size and batch processing.
Pricing could be improved, as Kinesis can be expensive, particularly for large data volumes, with high costs associated with certain features like enhanced fan-out.
 

Amazon Kinesis Pros review quotes

reviewer1476249 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 21, 2020
The feature that I've found most valuable is the replay. That is one of the most valuable in our business. We are business-to-business so replay was an important feature - being able to replay for 24 hours. That's an important feature.
PG
Oct 26, 2020
Amazon Kinesis has improved our ROI.
JM
Oct 24, 2020
Amazon Kinesis also provides us with plenty of flexibility.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon Kinesis. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
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JL
Oct 28, 2020
The most valuable feature is that it has a pretty robust way of capturing things.
MN
Oct 15, 2020
Everything is hosted and simple.
Sunil Morya - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 13, 2022
The solution has the capacity to store the data anywhere from one day to a week and provides limitless storage for us.
Oct 26, 2020
Its scalability is very high. There is no maintenance and there is no throughput latency. I think data scalability is high, too. You can ingest gigabytes of data within seconds or milliseconds.
MY
Dec 12, 2022
What I like about Amazon Kinesis is that it's very effective for small businesses. It's a well-managed solution with excellent reporting. Amazon Kinesis is also easy to use, and even a novice developer can work with it, versus Apache Kafka, which requires expertise.
PH
Mar 6, 2023
Setting Amazon Kinesis up is quick and easy; it only takes a few minutes to configure the necessary settings and start using it.
Prabin Silwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 24, 2024
The product's initial setup phase is not difficult because we are using the tool on the cloud.
 

Amazon Kinesis Cons review quotes

reviewer1476249 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 21, 2020
In general, the pain point for us was that once the data gets into Kinesis there is no way for us to understand what's happening because Kinesis divides everything into shards. So if we wanted to understand what's happening with a particular shard, whether it is published or not, we could not. Even with the logs, if we want to have some kind of logging it is in the shard.
PG
Oct 26, 2020
Something else to mention is that we use Kinesis with Lambda a lot and the fact that you can only connect one Stream to one Lambda, I find is a limiting factor. I would definitely recommend to remove that constraint.
JM
Oct 24, 2020
I think the default settings are far too low.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon Kinesis. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
JL
Oct 28, 2020
If there were better documentation on optimal sharding strategies then it would be helpful.
MN
Oct 15, 2020
Could include features that make it easier to scale.
Sunil Morya - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 13, 2022
The services which are described in the documentation could use some visual presentation because for someone who is new to the solution the documentation is not easy to follow or beginner friendly and can leave a person feeling helpless.
Oct 26, 2020
Kinesis Data Analytics needs to be improved somewhat. It's SQL based data but it is not as user friendly as MySQL or Athena tools.
MY
Dec 12, 2022
One area for improvement in the solution is the file size limitation of 10 Mb. My company works with files with a larger file size. The batch size and throughput also need improvement in Amazon Kinesis.
PH
Mar 6, 2023
Kinesis can be expensive, especially when dealing with large volumes of data.
Prabin Silwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 24, 2024
The tool should focus on having an alert system rather than having to use a third-party solution.