Introducing Industry Blueprints for Data & AI to Help AWS Partners Accelerate Solution Development

By Fei Lang, Principal Partner Solution Architect – AWS

We are excited to introduce AWS Industry Blueprints for Data & AI (Preview), an open-source initiative from Amazon Web Services (AWS) that offers a collection of building components, including code modules and solution accelerators, to facilitate the configuration and deployment of tailored components for various industry verticals’ turn-data-to-insights needs.

In this post, I will delve into the motivation of having Industry Blueprints for Data & AI, its componentized building mechanism, and how it can help AWS Partners fast-track industry solution development, enabling businesses to harness the full power of their data.

Motivation

Designing industry blueprints is driven by the need to address various challenges in package development for industry solutions. These challenges include accommodating the short lifespan of traditional packaged solutions, adapting to new AWS services and features, updating older solutions, ensuring solution effectiveness, providing an acceleration framework, and meeting the demands of multi-vertical solutions.

Successfully overcoming these challenges requires a combination of agility, innovation, and a deep understanding of industry needs.

To meet the demands of AWS industry partners, particularly those with cross-vertical offerings, there has been strong demand for solution accelerators in the form of pre-built components and architectural patterns. The Industry Blueprints for Data & AI were specifically designed to fulfill this need, empowering partners to kickstart their solution development efforts and efficiently deliver value to customers.

By leveraging these blueprints, AWS Partners can effectively navigate the complexities of industry solutions and capitalize on the benefits of a standardized, accelerated development approach.

Componentized Building Mechanism

The following diagram illustrates the complete process of “Turn Data into Insights,” which begins at the bottom and culminates at the top.

Figure 1 – Industry Blueprints for Data & AI framework.

Regardless of the industry, the initial stage of a customer’s data journey is similar. Data is gathered from multiple sources and funneled into the AWS Lake House. Subsequently, the data is processed and utilized according to specific use cases.

As part of the Industry Blueprints for Data & AI framework, we aim to break down this data journey into two main components categories: a foundational data ingestion pipeline, and specialized add-on use case modules that are tailored to each industry’s unique needs. These modules concentrate on processing and utilizing data in industry-specific ways, adding a distinct flavor to the process.

As we can see from the right-hand side of the diagram, the framework encompasses technology partner ecosystem products, which may provide customers with exclusive capabilities. As depicted on the top right side, AWS industry-specific services built with a specific purpose in mind act as catalysts for accelerating solution building. On the bottom left are AWS Partners who offer industry-specific solutions built on AWS analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) services.

Figure 2 – Industry blueprints building components.

As shown in the diagram above, our process for creating end-to-end solutions using Industry Blueprints for Data & AI begins with a foundational data ingestion pipeline. From there, we incorporate add-on modules that include comprehensive business logic.

Each of these components is designed to be pluggable yet generic enough to cater to the specific needs of various vertical solutions. Our approach to building solutions is similar to putting together LEGO blocks; as we like to say, the possibilities are limitless with such componentized building mechanism.

To give you a clearer picture, we have color-coded these components in the following diagram. Orange represents cross-industry reusable components that can be utilized in various sectors. Yellow, green, and blue components signify those with specific industry flavors, tailored to meet the unique requirements of different industries.

Figure 3 – Cross-industry applicable and industry-specific components.

Simplifying Solution Development

Industry Blueprints for Data & AI provides an extensive array of building components, including code modules and solution accelerators. These meticulously crafted components are purpose-built to address the specific turn-data-to-insights requirements across various industry verticals.

By leveraging these blueprints, developers can swiftly establish foundational data ingestion pipelines and effortlessly select tailored add-on components for specific use cases. This reduces development time and eliminates the need to build infrastructure from scratch.

Flexible and Tailored Solutions

One of the standout advantages of Industry Blueprints for Data & AI lies in their flexibility and customizability. The blueprints offer industry-specific add-on components designed for specialized use cases such as churn prediction, campaign management, identity resolution, and more. Furthermore, they cater to common industry tasks like deploying business intelligence (BI) dashboards and data governance.

Developers can seamlessly combine these components with minimal adjustments, creating comprehensive industry solutions infused with bespoke business logic. The pluggable nature of the components promotes easy reuse, providing developers with a solid foundation for solution development.

Seamless Integration with AWS Services and ISV Partners

Industry Blueprints for Data & AI seamlessly integrate with a comprehensive suite of AWS analytics and AI services. This integration empowers developers to leverage the full potential of services such as Amazon AppFlow, Amazon EMR, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Redshift, AWS Glue, Amazon Athena, Amazon QuickSight, Amazon SageMaker, as well as purpose-built services like Amazon HealthLake, Amazon Security Lake, and Amazon Supply Chain.

Furthermore, these blueprints go beyond AWS services alone, incorporating products from the AWS ISV Partner ecosystem. By leveraging the capabilities of partners such as Aerospike, Alation, Amperity, Amplitude, Collibra, Domo, Fivetran, and Matillion, the blueprints enrich the offering with proprietary functionalities that further enhance the value and meet the unique needs of industry solutions.

We are actively expanding our partner network to continue adding valuable components to the blueprint collection, ensuring comprehensive support for a wide range of industry requirements.

Build with Confidence Using AWS Well-Architected Patterns

To facilitate industry solution development, Industry Blueprints for Data & AI leverage AWS Solutions Constructs for many of the cloud development kit (CDK) code modules. These AWS Well-Architected patterns serve as building blocks, allowing developers to define solutions in code.

This approach ensures predictable and repeatable infrastructure deployments, enhancing efficiency and reliability throughout the solution development process. By adopting these well-architected patterns, developers can confidently construct industry solutions with a clear focus on scalability, security, and best practices.

Where We’re Heading Next

Building upon the tremendous success of our previous initiative, Amazon EKS Blueprints, which was launched over a year ago, we are thrilled to continue the trajectory of excellence.

The inception of EKS Blueprints was driven by a dedicated team of passionate solution architects and specialists at AWS, and its success was further amplified through collaborative efforts with the open-source community. Drawing inspiration from this proven model, we are eager to leverage similar principles to ensure the success and continuous improvement of our Industry Blueprints for Data & AI.

The Industry Blueprints for Data & AI community is open to everyone. We invite and encourage AWS Partners and customers to join us as contributors, whether by providing blueprint components or accelerators, reporting bugs, suggesting new features, making corrections, or contributing to documentation.

We’ll make our public roadmap available to everyone, as we value your input and want to hear from you. Share with us the verticals and use cases you are building solutions in, and let us know what additional components would be valuable to you.

We’re also eager to explore new blueprint possibilities. Together, we can shape and enhance the Industry Blueprints for Data & AI to better meet the evolving needs of the community.

Availability, Pricing, and Support

The building components provided by the Industry Blueprints for Data & AI are readily accessible. These components are designed to be deployed in any AWS region where the corresponding AWS services are available, ensuring flexibility and accessibility.

As we continue to enhance our offerings, we’re actively developing accelerator components tailored to additional verticals and expanding the scope of our blueprint solutions. Our dedicated team of AWS experts diligently updates the artifacts, keeping them in sync with the latest advancements and industry best practices in the dynamic data and AI landscape.

Industry Blueprints for Data & AI is free to use, and you pay for only the resources you deploy. For example, when you deploy a data ingestion component includes Amazon Kinesis and Redshift, you will incur standard Kinesis and Redshift charges.

Industry Blueprints for Data & AI is an open-source project, not part of an AWS service, so it’s therefore not included in AWS enterprise support. All AWS services provisioned by Industry Blueprints are fully supported.

Get Started with Industry Blueprints for Data & AI

Industry Blueprints for Data & AI presents a game-changing framework for accelerating industry solution development. By capitalizing on pre-built components, architectural patterns, and seamless integration with AWS services, developers can expedite time to market, reduce development overhead, and deliver innovative, data-driven solutions tailored to their industries.

Whether you’re a consulting partner, system integrator, or an organization seeking to extract insights from your data, Industry Blueprints for Data & AI offers a transformative avenue to accelerate solution development.

We invite you to learn more about AWS Industry Blueprints for Data & AI. You’ll find comprehensive project documentation, building components, and step-by-step instructions to get started. If you’re interested in building solutions using Industry Blueprints for Data & AI and would like to connect with our dedicated team, reach out to your AWS representative for further assistance.