---
title: "The Technology that's Taking Data Science by Storm"
description: "Discover how Amazon Redshift is revolutionizing data warehousing: 20x faster performance at 25% the cost, with 1TB queries in under 10 seconds. Key insights for data-driven startups."
categories: ["trends"]
keywords: ["Amazon Redshift","data warehousing","SQL databases","NoSQL","data science","cloud-based analytics","Tomasz Tunguz","data-driven startups","Looker","FlyData"]
ai_summary: "Explore how Amazon Redshift transforms data warehousing with unmatched speed and cost efficiency for startups."
date: 2014-01-30
lastmod: 2026-07-30
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/redshift/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

Given all the momentum of the NoSQL movement, it would be easy to write off SQL-based technologies as forgotten, or simply standing still. But there's a tremendous amount of innovation occurring in SQL databases. Amazon's Redshift, [an elastic data-warehousing solution launched in late 2012](http://m.fastcompany.com/3003490/amazon-takes-data-management-lions-cloud-computing-service-redshift)	is the most salient example.  

Redshift's ability to process huge volumes of data is breathtaking. When running Redshift on solid state drives (SSDs), one team at FlyData [queried 1 terabyte of data in less than 10 seconds](https://www.flydata.com/blog/posts/with-amazon-redshift-ssd-querying-a-tb-of-data-took-less-than-10-seconds). 

AirBnB's data science team 	wrote about their experiences contrasting [Redshift and Hive](http://nerds.airbnb.com/redshift-performance-cost/). They found Redshift to be 20x faster at 25% the cost.	 Aggregate Knowledge shared their story of searching for a database system that permits linear scaling and quick access to [same day data with Redshift](http://blog.aggregateknowledge.com/2013/05/16/aws-redshift-how-amazon-changed-the-game/)	

Although Redshift adoption is still much smaller than other data-warehousing technologies, consider Github has 96 Redshift repositories compared 	to close to 1200 for Hive; and although Redshift is missing some important data processing features, the benefits of a cloud-based data-warehouse with familiar SQL syntax and tremendous speed will make Redshift the data-warehouse of choice for many analytics teams. 

The rise of Redshift creates opportunities for startups to create valuable products atop the cloud-based data-warehouse. First, it speeds product trial and adoption. For example, potential customers examining [Looker's](http://www.looker.com) product simply need to provision access to their Redshift instance to give it a whirl. Second, Redshift enables startups to focus on innovating in better design, application-level innovation and delivering insight rather than the infrastructure of data analysis.

Redshift is a boon for analysts and data scientists who will benefit from the speed, cost and scalability of the system. In addition, the next-generation of data science startups will profit from the accelerated product adoption and sales models afforded by Redshift's delivery model.