AWS : What's the difference between Simple Workflow Service and Data Pipeline?

Question

What's the difference between Amazon Simple Workflow Service and Amazon Data Pipeline ? It seems that they are pretty much the same product. The Data Pipeline has a nice web based diagram editor though.

Cheers !

Answer 1

From http://aws.amazon.com/datapipeline/faqs/

Q: How is AWS Data Pipeline different from Amazon Simple Workflow Service?

While both services provide execution tracking, retry and exception-handling capabilities, and the ability to run arbitrary actions, AWS Data Pipeline is specifically designed to facilitate the specific steps that are common across a majority of data-driven workflows – inparticular, executing activities after their input data meets specific readiness criteria, easily copying data between different data stores, and scheduling chained transforms. This highly specific focus means that its workflow definitions can be created [with] very rapidly and with no code or programming knowledge.

Answer 2

Data Pipeline is service used to transfer data between various services of AWS. Example you can use DataPipeline to read the log files from your EC2 and periodically move them to S3.

Simple Workflow service is very powerful service. You can write even your workflow logic using it. Example : Most of the ecommerce systems have scalability problems in their order systems. You can use write code in SWF to make this ordering workflow process itself.