AWS and InfluxData partner to offer managed time series database

Companies that need to track the performance of assets, services, and products over time, especially at the second or sub-second level (down to microseconds), may have heard of InfluxDB, an open source time series database that was introduced back in 2013 was launched and has been steadily improving with new versions since then.

Whether it’s tech giants like PayPal, Cisco, and Adobe monitoring their services, or large financial institutions like Capital One monitoring customer transaction throughput and application health and status, or the Vera C. Rubin Observatory scanning the stars in Chile, or even From startup Ezako, a telemetry AI company, InfluxDB’s flexibility in tracking data over time has propelled the open source code to become an integral part of developer operations teams at more than 2,000 customers around the world.

“We are the most popular time series platform,” Evan Kaplan, CEO of InfluxData, the San Francisco-based company founded in 2012 that created InfluxDB, said in a video conference interview with VentureBeat , far ahead.”

Now, InfluxData is partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer managed services to more customers through Amazon Timestream.

Advantages of hosting time series databases on AWS

While AWS customers have always been able to implement InfluxDB themselves, and still can, there is value in offering a paid managed service for those customers who don’t have the time (no pun intended), resources, or attention to get InfluxDB up and running and per the creators way to maintain it.

The launch of Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB marks a significant enhancement in how developers interact with time series data. By hosting InfluxDB on AWS, InfluxData and AWS eliminate the complex management tasks that typically accompany running a database. These tasks include installation, upgrades, storage management, high-availability replication, and backup.

The service is designed to handle applications requiring millisecond response times, making it ideal for use cases such as real-time alerts and monitoring infrastructure reliability.

“One of the things that AWS customers value most is managed open source products,” Brad Bebee, general manager of Amazon Neptune and Timestream at AWS, said in the same video conference interview with VentureBeat. “When thinking about purposeful databases, we appreciate InfluxDB’s open source capabilities. Customers have asked for managed versions of these capabilities. At AWS, we offer at least 25 different managed resource services and gained important insights. We learned , partnering with Influx Data, who know their product best, we can deliver the best-managed open source InfluxDB.”

Which customers and which departments will leverage InfluxDB’s Amazon Timestream?

AWS and Influx have made a managed service version of InfluxDB available through Timestream to a select group of beta customers.

“Prior to launching the service, we ran what we internally called a private beta,” Bebee confirmed. “This is just internal access for some customers who are interested in using it. One of the areas where we see it being used is with many energy companies. In many places, power companies provide devices that allow consumers to monitor energy usage. This transparency has Help people make decisions that optimize energy use. In the UK, we’re seeing companies integrating these devices with existing Influx instances, exploring how they can be coordinated with managed AWS services. This is certainly an example of what we’ve observed. “

Bebee said other examples of customers who have found value in InfluxDB through Timestream products may be in the transportation and fleet management fields.

“If you think about e-scooters or electric vehicles, all of those things have different sensors and devices and things that you want to monitor the business operations from a fleet perspective,” he noted.

Additionally, Kaplan told VentureBeat that even “hobbyists at home” will find value in InfluxDB when monitoring infrastructure like solar panels or temperature, and will likely find value in InfluxDB’s Timestream.

“Any engineer trying to make systems smarter and smarter over time” is part of the potential addressable market for InfluxDB and AWS managed services products.

At a time when AI large language models (LLMs) and training data dominate many news and technology headlines, InfluxDB and AWS see real value in fostering new collaborations.

“Most of the really interesting data happens in the real world, not the generative world of language models,” Kaplan said.

Pricing for Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB ranges widely, depending on the data and frequency of observations, but the example on the AWS website has a long breakdown, showing a range of $373.21 to $11,969.

1. Video streaming application monitoring: $373.21/month.
2. Fraudulent payment detection: $1,057.96/month.
3. Real-time UPS monitoring (single availability zone): $737.88/month.
4. IoT Home Security Monitoring (Single Availability Zone): $3,002.25/month.
5. E-commerce user behavior analysis (single availability zone): $5,984.50/month.
6. Real-time UPS monitoring (multi-AZ): $1,476.49/month.
7. IoT Home Security Monitoring (Multi-AZ): $6,004.50/month.
8. E-commerce user behavior analysis (multiple availability zones): $11,969/mo.

As AWS continues to fend off advancing competitors like Microsoft Azure and beef up its artificial intelligence offerings, it’s worth noting that it’s not neglecting time series data and open source tools.