In our department, we use StreamSets to design data pipelines that load all data from various RD and VMS sources to the cloud, such as Azure. We also use the data set for data analysts to generate panels for our organization, as well as for real-time use cases for monitoring and consuming other streaming data. Additionally, we are able to customize StreamSets to suit our needs and budget.
Chief software engineer at Appnomu Business Services
Enables us to build data pipelines without knowing how to code and helped us break down data silos within our organization
Pros and Cons
- "The best feature that I really like is the integration."
- "Visualization and monitoring need to be improved and refined."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Using StreamSets to create pipelines for batch streaming or ETL is easy and straightforward. However, if one is new to StreamSets, it may not be so simple and may require a lot of documentation for assistance.
We utilize StreamSets' ability to connect to enterprise data stores, making it easy to begin trading instantly without needing to be technically skilled. We use StreamSets to move data into analytics platforms. In my experience, it is initially quite easy to move data back if we have a clear understanding of data transit, importation, and exporting from external sources.
This solution enables us to build data pipelines without knowing how to code. The solution includes templates that guide us and help us customize our data easily. It is essential that StreamSets does not necessitate coding, as this saves a considerable amount of time that would otherwise be spent writing code, as well as resources that would be required to hire experts.
Transformer for Snowflake can help with both simple and complex transformation logic. For example, creating a plan to perform EPL and machine learning operations is easy and fast. However, if the same operations are performed on-site, it can be difficult to troubleshoot events due to limited visibility into the results. StreamSets' Transformer for Snowflake is important to us because it saves us a lot of time and enables us to complete a task remotely with only two or three people.
It is important that Transformer for Snowflake is a serverless engine embedded within the platform. We have the capability of creating a data operations platform, so we don't have to worry or even be aware of what we are doing at the moment. We can simply create a device and use it in the pipeline we want it to be in.
The solution improved the way we work, benefiting both our customers and our development and retainer teams. StreamSets helps us develop a platform manually, with a lot of teamwork, either remotely or on-site, depending on which option we use. This has had a significant impact on our organization in terms of how we process and transform data.
I would say that it is very easy for us to update the template so that we can have real, actual data in APL claims and in the supply chain. StreamSets' data drift resilience is very effective and can run in the data grid. The data drift resilience has reduced the time it takes us to fix data drift breakages by approximately 25 percent.
StreamSets helped us break down data silos within our organization. The ability to break down data silos helps StreamSets to gain quick insights. In general, it is a great feature that ensures we have activities or processes in place. We know precisely what to prevent and what to implement.
StreamSets saved us around 30 percent of our time, meaning that a task that would take five hours to complete manually can now be done in around three and a half hours.
The reusable assets are reducing workload by 35 percent by allowing different people to use a single platform or resource, regardless of whether they have a similar SKU or a different SKU. This feature can help an organization simplify, implement, and transmit more easily.
It is not only the cost of one packet that we paid for, but now we are implementing a strategy using different people within the company. It would be very expensive if we had to hire a new person to manage that task and it would also take a lot of time. StreamSets is not only saving us money, but it is also ensuring that we complete strategies on time.
StreamSets as well helped us scale our operations, which has had a significant impact on our business. We now have a better understanding of how to secure data and provide reliable security for the transmission of data from internal servers to external services, as well as meeting our client's application needs.
What is most valuable?
The best feature that I really like is the integration. The software can be integrated with Azure Keyvault or AWS Secrets Manager, as well as scheduling. It is very easy to schedule an event, which is much easier than I expected through StreamSets. The solution is also fast at determining pipelines. Additionally, I like that StreamSets has many components, such as sources, processes, execution, and other useful elements that I need to plan.
What needs improvement?
There should be a concept of creating double variables because it's still missing.
The loading machine mechanism needs to be simplified. Currently, it takes some time to get familiar with and understand that.
Visualization and monitoring need to be improved and refined. For example, it is difficult to monitor a job to see what happened in the past seven days when a transfer occurred.
The licensing model also has room for improvement. The solution is currently expensive.
Buyer's Guide
StreamSets
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about StreamSets. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We currently have four people using StreamSets in our organization.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good and they prioritize issues based on their severity, so sometimes we have to wait a while for a response.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a bit complex for first-time people. There is a lot of documentation that needs to be reviewed before deploying. The deployment takes around one month.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation is completed in-house.
What was our ROI?
StreamSets simplified our data ingestion and integration process without the need for the large financial investment that would be required if we were to use other, cheaper solutions. This is due to StreamSets' security and safety in supporting various heterogeneous sources such as RDZMS, and Salesforce. StreamSets ensures that we have a secure and easy way to launch any integration tool, resulting in increased profits. StreamSets is very stable, secure, and compliant, and has yielded a return on investment of around 30 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe the pricing is not equitable. Different businesses operate in various models and ways, so I wish StreamSets would be able to adjust their pricing depending on the intended use of the software. This would be beneficial to businesses with limited budgets. Currently, the cost of StreamSets is the same regardless of the amount of backup, which is costly.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten. StreamSets still needs to improve the monitoring and visualization before the solution can be a ten out of ten.
Since StreamSets is deployed in the cloud, we don't have any maintenance requirements or costs.
I highly recommend StreamSets; it is an excellent tool with both batch and streaming capabilities. StreamSets is a great option for anyone to try, though it does require an organization to have the budget to use it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
CEO-founder at Tubayo
Data streams and pipelines help our team identify areas for improvement in our solution
Pros and Cons
- "One of the things I like is the data pipelines. They have a very good design. Implementing pipelines is very straightforward. It doesn't require any technical skill."
- "Sometimes, it is not clear at first how to set up nodes. A site with an explanation of how each node works would be very helpful."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for building a data lake in our content. We have sales multiple times during the day, and a sale is the trigger. Sales use the lake as a landing zone. We also use it for various types of data transformation.
How has it helped my organization?
It enables us to create data streams and pipelines that our team can use to identify areas for improvement. Our marketing team can read the data generated on sales to understand how we can integrate our product and focus on the areas in which we need more improvement. By the end of the day, we have an improved solution.
The lack of coding makes work easier and faster, and after creating a template you can immediately transform any source. It saves a lot of time and makes things efficient. You complete things on time.
The impact that it has had on my company is that when we have a variety of data that we want to convert or transform, StreamSets is helpful. We can store a maximum amount of data, and transfer various data from different departments and use the analysis to understand how to improve our business.
And because it's a service, it's very helpful to me as a CEO. It's serverless and secure.
In addition, the data drift resilience has reduced the time it takes to fix data drift breakages by 35 percent. Overall, StreamSets, as a solution, saves me about 45 percent of time, and has reduced workload by 25 percent. It also saves me about $500 a month.
Another benefit is that breaking down sums of data gives you the ability to create graphical reports and present them to any team, and they will be understood.
What is most valuable?
One of the things I like is the data pipelines. They have a very good design. Implementing pipelines is very straightforward. It doesn't require any technical skill.
We have also integrated it with Kafka messaging and it is not complex to do. It is really so easy to connect or integrate with data interfaces. And moving data into analytics platforms using StreamSets is easy. It doesn't require any coding, meaning your can transfer or move data into data payloads without coding skills. It's a good move, for someone in the beginning, who doesn't have any knowledge because it's quite easy.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, it is not clear at first how to set up nodes. A site with an explanation of how each node works would be very helpful.
Also, it doesn't provide a very good user experience.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using StreamSets for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I've never seen any negative downtime.
How are customer service and support?
Their technical support is very supportive. They really know what to do, and they are very good people, very friendly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
It took me three days to deploy it. I did it on my own. We use it in two departments in one location and there are four users.
There is no maintenance of the solution on our side.
What was our ROI?
Since I implemented StreamSets, we have more generated sales, on the order of 50 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is affordable for any business.
What other advice do I have?
The transformation logic is a bit complex when you begin and you may need to read the documentation. When you create logic, you have to be sure of the scenarios in the logic.
Any company that is looking for data engineering should use StreamSets because the pricing is quite favorable. I would recommend it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Buyer's Guide
StreamSets
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about StreamSets. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Data Platform Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Useful for data transformation and helps with column encryption
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing about StreamSets is its plugins, which are very useful and work well with almost every data source. It's also easy to use, especially if you're comfortable with SQL. You can customize it to do what you need. Many other tools have started to use features similar to those introduced by StreamSets, like automated workflows that are easy to set up."
- "We often faced problems, especially with SAP ERP. We struggled because many columns weren't integers or primary keys, which StreamSets couldn't handle. We had to restructure our data tables, which was painful. Also, pipeline failures were common, and data drifting wasn't addressed, which made things worse. Licensing was another issue we encountered."
What is our primary use case?
StreamSets is used for data transformation rather than ETL processes. It focuses on transforming data directly from sources without handling the extraction part of the process. The transformed data is loaded into Amazon Redshift or other data warehousing solutions.
What is most valuable?
The best thing about StreamSets is its plugins, which are very useful and work well with almost every data source. It's also easy to use, especially if you're comfortable with SQL. You can customize it to do what you need. Many other tools have started to use features similar to those introduced by StreamSets, like automated workflows that are easy to set up.
What needs improvement?
We often faced problems, especially with SAP ERP. We struggled because many columns weren't integers or primary keys, which StreamSets couldn't handle. We had to restructure our data tables, which was painful. Also, pipeline failures were common, and data drifting wasn't addressed, which made things worse. Licensing was another issue we encountered.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool's flexibility and performance are good. It allows for task dependency management so others won't be affected if one task fails. It can handle large volumes of data and supports features like change data capture for tracking changes.
Around six months ago, many people in my company were using StreamSets. In the US team, about 42 people across different projects were using it. Similarly, in 2021, there were around 43 users. About 16-18 people in Mumbai used it in my previous company.
How are customer service and support?
The tool's support is good.
How was the initial setup?
Installing StreamSets can take time because it has two versions: a data controller and a data transformer. The data controller is easier to install, but the transformer is more complicated and requires more steps, like setting up tasks and configurations.
It would be best to ensure the environment was ready, including that it worked well with other servers. The process can be both easy and difficult, but if you follow the documentation, it should be manageable.
What was our ROI?
Whether the tool is worth the money depends on the situation. If you don't want to spend a lot on competing products like Databricks or Glue, then StreamSets might be a better option. It's particularly valuable if you prefer not to invest heavily in training your team on new technologies. If your ETL developers or data engineers are comfortable with StreamSets, it can be worth the money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is expensive, and there are other costs involved too. I know from using the software that you have to buy new features whenever there are new updates, which I don't really like. But initially, it was very good.
What other advice do I have?
We use various tools and alerting systems to notify us of pipeline errors or failures. StreamSets supports data governance and compliance by allowing us to encrypt incoming data based on specified rules. We can easily encrypt columns by providing the column name and hash key.
If you're considering using StreamSets for the first time, I would advise first understanding why you want to use it and how it will benefit you. If you're dealing with change tracking or handling large amounts of data, it could be cost-effective compared to services like Amazon. It's easy to schedule and manage tasks with the tool, and you can enhance your skills as an ETL developer. You can easily migrate traditional pipelines built on platforms like Informatica or Talend to StreamSets. I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Product Manager at a hospitality company with 51-200 employees
Provides a good bifurcation rate and accuracy, and saves time and money
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to have a good bifurcation rate and fewer mistakes is valuable."
- "One thing that I would like to add is the ability to manually enter data. The way the solution currently works is we don't have the option to manually change the data at any point in time. Being able to do that will allow us to do everything that we want to do with our data. Sometimes, we need to manually manipulate the data to make it more accurate in case our prior bifurcation filters are not good. If we have the option to manually enter the data or make the exact iterations on the data set, that would be a good thing."
What is our primary use case?
We were receiving data from hospitals or any kind of healthcare service providers in the country. We were dominantly operating in the US. When we received that data, we had to classify it into different repositories or different datasets. This data was sent to different vendors, and for that, the data needed to get processed in different ways. We needed to bifurcate data at many steps with different kinds of filters. For that, we used StreamSets.
How has it helped my organization?
We could bifurcate the datasets that we received from different hospitals. We could bifurcate it on the basis of the medical requirements of the hospitals, and sometimes, on the basis of the schedule or purpose. We were obtaining data that we could then supply to some consulting firms or other sources.
StreamSets saved us time. The accuracy was pretty good, and it was definitely better than what we were using previously. Earlier, we had hired two people who were doing the job manually, and we were also using some other platform. We had to pay for them. Overall, we have saved a lot of time, and the accuracy has improved as well. We didn't calculate the time savings, but I believe we saved about three days in a week, so there were about 30% to 40% time savings.
StreamSets reduced the workload. There was a 10% to 15% reduction in the workload.
StreamSets helped us to scale our data operations. The limit at which we purchased this solution was incredible. We were never able to reach the limit that we purchased, but it helped us to increase or scale our operation. Especially in months when we received a higher number of entries, we were able to perform our work on time.
What is most valuable?
The ability to have a good bifurcation rate and fewer mistakes is valuable. In the scenario we had, when we had to bifurcate the data, we did not completely cut the data. We made a different route for one set of data, which went into a different operating system. There was also a complete set of data along with the original data that got cut, which once again went through the filtration process, and in this way, it kept on happening. Different solutions that were in place were not providing this feasibility. With the other solutions that we were using earlier, we had to reuse the data again and again from the start. It was a time-taking process.
Their support system was pretty good. When we were setting up the bifurcation protocols that we wanted to set up, we had a few support calls with them, and those were really helpful.
What needs improvement?
The design or the way they have set up the protocol is pretty good. One thing that I would like to add is the ability to manually enter data. The way the solution currently works is we don't have the option to manually change the data at any point in time. Being able to do that will allow us to do everything that we want to do with our data. Sometimes, we need to manually manipulate the data to make it more accurate in case our prior bifurcation filters are not good. If we have the option to manually enter the data or make the exact iterations on the data set, that would be a good thing. It does not have that feature. None of the solutions provides this feature, but this is the feature that we are looking for. If we could bifurcate the data or do manual manipulation of data at any point in time, it would be a game changer.
Its initial setup could also be a bit easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this solution for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product. We used it for about a year, and we hardly had to shut it down.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are a medium enterprise. We only have three departments in our company, and only one of the departments is using it. Salespeople don't use it. The development people don't use it. We are the ones using it, and our job is to process the information, so only one department is using the solution. We have about 18 people in the department.
Up to medium enterprises, it's a good choice. You can scale between one million to ten million data files. I don't believe they offer the service for a hundred million or one billion datasets. It isn't too scalable for large enterprises, but for small and medium enterprises, it's good.
How are customer service and support?
I'd rate them an eight out of ten. The only reason for not giving them a ten out of ten is that if you're doing very important work and you need to get the solution the same day, it's a bit tough to have the team support you in a very short period of time. They usually give you appointments about a day or two days later. Other than that, everything is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using another solution previously. The major reason for switching to StreamSets was that we needed to scale our operations. Our prior solution could have been scaled, but the cost of scaling was a bit higher. We would have had to hire one more person to be able to scale, but we did not want to hire more people, so we decided to use a completely automated solution for this part so that it could be handled by only one of our team members. That was the primary requirement. The cost-benefit analysis was done by one of our peers. His proposal was pretty good, and everyone agreed to it.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is a bit tough. You need to have the technical expertise to do that. The support team is good. They help you around, but if they could make it a bit easier, it would be better.
I believe it operates only from the cloud. We also received the data from our associations on the cloud. We processed it on the cloud, and everything happened on the cloud.
The initial setup was complex because we were not able to directly link the data we were receiving with the StreamSets solution. Linking it required us to fill in or enter some information in StreamSets, but we were not able to figure out what to enter. For that part, we needed their help.
We spent about a week. For the first three days, our team members were trying their best to do it, but then we had to schedule a meeting with them. In terms of the number of people, only one person was working with our team, and there were three people working with the product. I was also involved in the product as a product manager, but I was not directly operating that system.
It didn't require any maintenance as such. Any maintenance activities were related to our side of things. There were mistakes on our end. When we were entering different data, we had to do different configurations in the system.
What was our ROI?
We did the cost-benefit analysis before buying the solution, and it performed even better than that. We were able to replace two of our staff members who were doing this work. The cost that we paid for this solution was pretty less as compared to their salaries, so on the cost-benefit side of things, it was a good deal. We saved about two persons' manual wage, which is about $6,000 a month, and we also saved 15% of a week's time. These two were the biggest returns on the investment. The accuracy was also a bit higher.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its pricing is pretty much up to the mark. For smaller enterprises, it could be a big price to pay at the initial stage of operations, but the moment you have the Seed B or Seed C funding and you want to scale up your operations and aren't much worried about the funds, at that point in time, you would need a solution that could be scaled. Simultaneously, you need a solution that you don't want to use on a very long-term basis. This solution could not be applied if we were operating with all the hospital chains in the US. We were operating just with one hospital. That's why it worked pretty well, so for medium enterprises, I believe it's very good.
What other advice do I have?
To those evaluating StreamSets, I'd advise doing a cost-benefit analysis because the way of using StreamSets differs from person to person. Someone else might have a very different use case, and they may not run into profit using the solution. For us, it was a good solution because we were hiring people for this work. People were doing the job manually. We saved both time and money, so doing a cost-benefit analysis would be the best thing.
If you are looking to expand your domain or range of operations, StreamSets is very helpful. If you are just looking for a better data analytics tool that can do bifurcation on data, I believe there are other tools or services available in the market that do not focus on the expansion of operations. They focus on doing better and more complex bifurcations.
StreamSets enables you to build data pipelines without knowing how to code. After generating a few responses, you have to enter some basic syntax or code, but generally, one can do a lot of no-code stuff, which was not an important aspect for us because we were operating in the IT space, and our entire team was capable of entering all the syntaxes that were required. It was not an issue for us at any point in time. In fact, in the operations that we were performing, we only used code. When we were testing out our initial datasets, we used some no-code features that were there, but at the later stage, we used only syntaxes.
We did not connect to the messaging systems, but we connected some enterprise databases. We were operating with a set of hospitals in the US, and we had to connect with them only the first time. Afterward, it was the data that was passing through the pipeline. Initially, for a completely new user, it's a bit tricky. Some technical expertise is required. It's a bit tough, but because the support team is there, one would be able to do it.
Overall, I would rate StreamSets an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Software Engineer at ZIDIYO
Enables us to create streams and pipelines that our analytics team can utilize to identify areas for improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The UI is user-friendly, it doesn't require any technical know-how and we can navigate to social media or use it more easily."
- "Using ETL pipelines is a bit complicated and requires some technical aid."
What is our primary use case?
We use StreamSets to create data pipelines and to make sure that we know the exact analytics of our data usage within our company.
How has it helped my organization?
We use StreamSets' ability to connect to enterprise data stores such as Kafka. It is easy and simple to connect enterprise data stores as long as we follow the documentation.
We use StreamSets' ability to move data into the analytic platforms easily because we can use the template provided to extract data from the pipeline.
Being able to use Transformer for Snowflake to design both simple and complex transformation logic is important because it helps us break out a live amount of data interfaces that can be understood by the analytics team and identify areas of improvement. As the Transformer for Snowflake operates as a serverless engine, we can reduce our costs as we no longer need to purchase servers.
StreamSets enables us to create streams and pipelines that our analytics team can utilize to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, our marketing team can leverage the data generated from these reports to understand how we can integrate our products and services to benefit our brand.
StreamSets' data drift resilience is effective and user-friendly. We can use templates or use them from scratch. Data drift resilience saves us around 35 percent of the time fixing duplicates.
StreamSets has helped us break down data silos within our organization by providing a clear path forward and enhancing our productivity by breaking down a large amount of data that we can understand.
StreamSets saved us around 40 percent of our time.
We can use a small team using StreamSets to create data pipelines that would normally require an expert that costs around $500 per month.
StreamSets helps us scale our operations because we understand the quality of the data we have and how we can integrate the data into our marketing needs.
What is most valuable?
The UI is user-friendly, it doesn't require any technical know-how and we can navigate to social media or use it more easily.
What needs improvement?
Using ETL pipelines is a bit complicated and requires some technical aid.
The Transformer for Snowflake functionality is complex and requires a lot of logic.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable with no issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team takes over eight hours to respond to our requests.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I deployed the solution myself.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What was our ROI?
StreamSets helps us increase our sales by 45 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
StreamSets is expensive, especially for small businesses.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten.
The solution does not require maintenance from our end.
We have deployed StreamSets across our engineering team, data analytics team, and software development team.
StreamSets is an excellent solution for organizations that have a budget. The solution allows for various streaming capabilities and seamless integration with customer messaging, all within one environment. I highly recommend StreamSets.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Product Marketer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have been able to eliminate the vast majority of our break/fix costs and maintenance time
Pros and Cons
- "The entire user interface is very simple and the simplicity of creating pipelines is something that I like very much about it. The design experience is very smooth."
- "One area for improvement could be the cloud storage server speed, as we have faced some latency issues here and there."
What is our primary use case?
Our major use case with StreamSets is to build data pipelines from multiple sources to multiple destinations. We mainly use the StreamSets Data Collector Engine for seamless streaming from any source to any destination.
We also use it to deliver continuous data for database operations and modern analytics.
How has it helped my organization?
One great thing is that now, with the implementation of StreamSets, we have been able to eliminate about 80 percent of our break/fix costs and maintenance time. It is very easy to connect with streaming platforms and streaming services.
Also, we can integrate and stream databases by connecting with multiple streaming services. Before StreamSets, data transfer from source to destination took about three hours of time and it was prone to errors. Now, with the introduction of StreamSets, we primarily use the Data Collector and this has enabled us to complete the same job in less than 30 minutes. We save that much time per day or about 15 hours per week.
Another definite benefit is that it has helped us to break down data silos within our organization. We are able to work together, with the interaction of StreamSets. Previously, the data silos were extremely perilous because data would come from multiple, scattered sources. We were not able to consolidate it on time and we were not able to exactly pinpoint errors. But StreamSets has helped us streamline the use of multiple sources and destinations, completely eliminating the silos. That saves us a lot of time and we have reduced the number of errors by a lot.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of StreamSets, for me, are the Data Collector and the Control Hub platform. They are both very straightforward to use and user-friendly. And with the Data Collector and Control Hub, we get canvas selection for designing all our pipelines, which is very intuitive and useful for us.
In fact, the entire user interface is very simple and the simplicity of creating pipelines is something that I like very much about it. The design experience is very smooth. A great thing about StreamSets is that it is a single, centralized platform. All our design-pattern requirements are met with a single design experience through StreamSets.
We can also easily build pipelines with minimal coding and minimal technical knowledge. It is very easy to start and very easy to scale as well. That is very important to me, personally, because I'm from a non-technical background. One of the most important criteria was for me to be able to use this platform efficiently.
Also, moving data to modern analytics platforms is very straightforward. That is why StreamSets is one of the top players in the market right now.
And one of the major advantages for us is the built-in functionality. StreamSets has a plethora of features that combine well with ETL.
What needs improvement?
In terms of features, I don't have any complaints so far. But one area for improvement could be the cloud storage server speed, as we have faced some latency issues here and there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using StreamSets for about eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. It's a cloud-based solution, so there is a little bit of latency, some server speed issues, but apart from that, there is no question about the stability of the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The platform is definitely scalable.
Maybe in the future we will increase our usage of StreamSets, but I don't see any immediate scalability requirements for us.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted their customer support, but my team contacts them. From what I understand they have a pretty healthy conversation with the StreamSets customer support. All of our queries are sent via email and they get them sorted out. They also join Google Meet sessions or calls, if required, to sort out our queries. It has been a very smooth journey so far. I don't have any complaints with regard to their customer service.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
StreamSets is the first solution that we are using in this space.
How was the initial setup?
I was not fully involved in the initial implementation, but we did the implementation in phases. We wanted to get it on board as soon as possible, so instead of doing a complete implementation, we did it in phases and it didn't take a lot of time. We were able to get on with the work as soon as possible with this model.
The initial setup was simple. We didn't require any additional training or third-party vendors. We were able to do it along with the StreamSets team, so it was smooth for us.
We have 15 people using StreamSets, all at one location. They are developers and users.
Because it is a cloud platform there isn't much maintenance required other than server updates, but that is expected with any cloud platform. No extensive maintenance is required. We have a team of two people who maintain it and handle updates and all the latest releases.
What was our ROI?
Tasks that took three hours can now be done in less than 30 minutes. This is one of the prime data points in terms of ROI for this product.
In terms of money saved, we still haven't seen any direct results from StreamSets. With its automation, we are able to focus on other tasks because StreamSets is taking care of the operations side. Theoretically, it should save us some money but it hasn't until now. We still have the same number of employees.
We are moving in a positive direction. Hopefully, this trend continues. We were able to see the time savings and reduced errors within three months of deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are two editions, Professional and Enterprise, and there is a free trial. We're using the Professional edition and it is competitively priced. I wouldn't say it's cheap or moderate, but it's also not a high price.
What other advice do I have?
We have been experimenting with Hadoop, but apart from that, we do not use it to establish a connection with other services. As an organization, we have not faced any issues with connectivity using StreamSets. The platform is very stable.
Overall, StreamSets is very efficient and effective. It has helped us save a lot of time and also reduced errors a lot. I would definitely rate it very highly. The major reason is that it gives us a single, centralized platform for all our design-pattern requirements and we are able to produce results efficiently. With StreamSets, we are able to transfer or stream data from any source to any destination. It has increased the overall efficiency of our organization.
Software AG is constantly improving and evolving the product, and that is something that I like: using a product that is ever-evolving and being upgraded.
After deploying StreamSets, I learned a lot about how data planning works and how easy it is to stream from multiple sources to multiple destinations. That is one of my major takeaways. I thought it would be a very complex task, but that myth was broken by StreamSets. The complexity was made very simple for me.
My advice is to try the free edition. It's a very user-friendly and intuitive product as well. Try it to get a grasp of what's happening inside the product. Once you try the free edition, you'll definitely go for the Professional edition. I don't have any doubt about that. The product itself will lure you. That is the power of the product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Software Developer at Appnomu Business Services
Simplifies the way we perform tasks and engineer pipelines at all stages
Pros and Cons
- "StreamSets Transformer is a good feature because it helps you when you are developing applications and when you don't want to write a lot of code. That is the best feature overall."
- "The monitoring visualization is not that user-friendly. It should include other features to visualize things, like how many records were streamed from a source to a destination on a particular date."
What is our primary use case?
It is primarily being used by our IT department to configure things and see what is missing and what the issues are.
How has it helped my organization?
I'm using StreamSets to find issues with our software and it is helping us to do so, and to make sure that we are able to debug on time. It makes things much simpler. We can use the solution to know what issue is happening at the moment. We are able to easily identify a leak and resolve it on time.
It reduces our workload by about 30 percent. And it saves us a lot on having to hire expensive technical experts or software engineers. You purchase a package with a reasonable pricing model, and then you can use it with your team. It saves us from hiring a technical person to carry out the tasks. With StreamSets, you can do a task easily.
It also makes it easy to send data from one place to another.
StreamSets is doing a lot in our IT operations because it is simplifying the way we perform tasks and the way we engineer pipelines at all stages, including the sources, processes, and destination use. We can schedule data pipelines and that's easy.
And because it is low-code software, you don't need to develop the code and that really saves a lot of time. Using the canvas to create and engineer data pipelines is very easy. StreamSets saves me three hours that it would take me to manually do a task.
What is most valuable?
StreamSets Transformer is a good feature because it helps you when you are developing applications and when you don't want to write a lot of code. That is the best feature overall. They really help you to come up with a solution more quickly. The Transformer logic is very easy, as long as you understand the concept of what you intend to develop. It doesn't require any technical skills.
The overall GUI and user interface are also good because you don't need to write complex programming for any implementation. You just drag and configure what you want to implement. It's very easy and you can use it without knowing any programming language.
The design experience is much easier when you want to integrate other systems and tools and make them work in a particular format. It helps you improve the topologies. You can view the status of all the pipelines you have developed and monitor them.
Connecting to enterprise data stores is also very easy, as is monitoring and managing things in one place.
What needs improvement?
The monitoring visualization is not that user-friendly. It should include other features to visualize things, like how many records were streamed from a source to a destination on a particular date.
I would also like better, detailed logging of error information.
It also needs a fragment drill-down feature when monitoring a data flow. That needs a lot of improvement, especially when you are running a job.
For how long have I used the solution?
This is my second year using StreamSets.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution for any company that needs to know about its data processing.
How are customer service and support?
It is hard to get technical support from the company. To receive one-on-one communication requires a budget, which we don't really have. The way we get technical support is through the documentation and knowledge base.
It is missing a live instant chat on the dashboard.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have a previous solution.
How was the initial setup?
Initially, the deployment could be very hard if you do not have a lot of technical skills, but as you get used to the software, within a day, the deployment becomes straightforward and becomes easy. It took two weeks to have everything configured in the right manner. I worked with one other colleague to set everything up.
It is hard, especially when you are a beginner, but when you read the documentation you can set things up quickly. The documentation helps out if you don't have good knowledge of the solution.
It doesn't require maintenance.
What was our ROI?
The solution is helping a lot because we are not spending a lot of money on a technical team. We just subscribe to the software and we're able to configure things. It has helped us save on resources by 30 percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is too fixed. It should be based on how much data you need to process. Some businesses are not so big that they process a lot of data. They process a lot of debugging. The pricing is not so favorable for a small enterprise because it is too limited.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the software to any business that needs to do data engineering. If they design data pipelines, it is really a great idea to test out StreamSets. Unfortunately, you need a good budget for it. If a small business doesn't have the budget, I cannot recommend it. But if they have a good budget, I really recommend it because it has so many features that can really help data scientists and analysts generate patterns or insights for their businesses. And it will benefit their customers as well.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
AI Engineer at Techvanguard
A no-code solution with a drag-and-drop UI, but the execution engine should be better
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable would be the GUI platform that I saw. I first saw it at a special session that StreamSets provided towards the end of the summer. I saw the way you set it up and how you have different processes going on with your data. The design experience seemed to be pretty straightforward to me in terms of how you drag and drop these nodes and connect them with arrows."
- "The execution engine could be improved. When I was at their session, they were using some obscure platform to run. There is a controller, which controls what happens on that, but you should be able to easily do this at any of the cloud services, such as Google Cloud. You shouldn't have any issues in terms of how to run it with their online development platform or design platform, basically their execution engine. There are issues with that."
What is our primary use case?
I was working on an integration project where I was using the StreamSets platform. I was looking at both their data collector and their transformer. The idea was to integrate it with AWS SageMaker Canvas. Both of them are what they call no-code options. StreamSets is for data pipelining, managing your data flow, and transforming your data. SageMaker is AWS, and Canvas is basically their no-code option for machine learning.
I was trying to connect it to a data object repository. For AWS, that's a specific managed service called S3. I wasn't trying to run it with a data warehouse.
How has it helped my organization?
It's still in the trial stage. I don't get a 30-day trial period or anything like that. I just got to write about what's involved and then see if that's something that justifies the use case for going ahead and purchasing the license for it.
It enables you to build data pipelines without knowing how to code. It abstracts away the need for Spark or anything like that. This ability is highly important because it reduces development time.
It saves time because you don't have to write code.
It saves money by not having to hire people with specialized skills. You don't need Spark or anything like that for doing the same thing.
It helps to scale your data operations. You can get to the execution engine and provision bigger machines or bigger clusters. You can scale out to however much data you need to scale out to.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable would be the GUI platform that I saw. I first saw it at a special session that StreamSets provided towards the end of the summer. I saw the way you set it up and how you have different processes going on with your data. The design experience seemed to be pretty straightforward to me in terms of how you drag and drop these nodes and connect them with arrows.
What needs improvement?
The execution engine could be improved. When I was at their session, they were using some obscure platform to run. There is a controller, which controls what happens on that, but you should be able to easily do this at any of the cloud services, such as Google Cloud. You shouldn't have any issues in terms of how to run it with their online development platform or design platform, basically their execution engine. There are issues with that.
It can break down data silos within the organization. One person can do the whole thing with StreamSets and SageMaker Canvas, but it hasn't yet had any effect on our operations or business because it's one of those situations where you can either get a demo from them or you basically have to go to one of these sessions and they give you temporary credentials and try to work with your use case. Personally, I would change their model a bit and give a two-week trial license for a cloud platform at the very least. You can then try to get something to work or call up their technical department and say, "Look, I've been evaluating this thing for the last few days. I don't know exactly how to resolve this issue."
For how long have I used the solution?
I started using it in June of this year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The whole issue of the execution engine needs to be better resolved. If you pick a cloud, why isn't it working with this cloud? Or what do I need to do to get it to work with one specific cloud service if it can be deployed across multiple clouds?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It seems pretty highly scalable to me. That's not going to be an issue. Just the administration of it could be an issue.
It's currently being used in a dev department for machine learning. It's being used by the business analyst team.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't contacted their support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
AWS has native solutions. There are AWS Data Wrangler and others that come bundled with their services, like AWS Glue. We haven't yet switched to StreamSets. It's still in the evaluation stage, but the no-code and the drag-and-drop option with a GUI are some of the things that seem to resonate with people.
How was the initial setup?
I was involved in its setup. I was the one who basically had to try to get it to run with whatever process or custom processor I developed.
It was complex to set up. I had to go to the sessions. On a couple of occasions, I was doing it directly from the cloud platform, and apparently, that wasn't the way to do it. You have to go through their universal designer platform first.
In terms of maintenance, once you're deployed from the cloud, that's all handled for you. It's managed for you directly from the cloud service. So, you don't have to worry about that. They maintain their design platform.
What about the implementation team?
I didn't use any consultant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I didn't get into that with the StreamSets representative. It seems to be pay-as-you-go, but I don't know exactly how they do it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Alteryx is another option. It's a similar tool, and it looks almost the same as StreamSets. Alteryx is something that's available for any cloud. It doesn't matter which cloud. You go on the various clouds, and you look and see what they have.
What other advice do I have?
To those evaluating this solution, I would advise looking into how it integrates with the cloud service that they're going to try it with. Does it naturally integrate better with AWS or Azure? It's one of those situations.
I used StreamSets' ability to move data into a modern analytics platform. That's what the AWS SageMaker Canvas is. It's like predictive analytics. In terms of ease of moving data into this analytics platform, doing the design on the StreamSets platform is one thing, but having the execution engine and getting that provision is a totally different ball game. Basically, that's where its limitation comes in.
Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten. The issue that was never resolved for me was if you're running a compute or execution engine on AWS versus Azure versus GCP, how does that integration work because that has got nothing to do with StreamSets? That is outside of StreamSets. You're now dealing with the cloud service, and there's a good reason for that.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Updated: December 2024
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