Amazon Web Services Inc. today launched a new tool for customers that makes it simple to prepare the same dataset for multiple application requirements.

The S3 Object Lambda tool works by retrieving data from the Amazon S3 Simple Storage service and automatically processing and transforming it for each app that needs to use it.

AWS Chief Evangelist Danilo Poccia explained in a blog post why some users might want to do this. He said an e-commerce application data set is likely to include lots of personally identifiable information not needed when that information is being analyzed for customer trends, for example. In that case, the dataset should be redacted. However, if a company intends to use that data for a personalized marketing campaign, it may want to enrich the information with personal details about each customer.

Previously, customers would have to go to great lengths to modify a dataset for different applications, Poccia said. They could either create, store and maintain separate derivative copies of the dataset, giving each application that uses it its own custom copy, or they could build and manage an infrastructure proxy layer in front of the S3 service that intercepts and processes the data as it’s requested by each app. Poccia said neither option is ideal, since they both add complexity and cost.

“With S3 Object Lambda you can add your own code to S3 GET requests to modify and process data as it is returned to an application,” the company explained. “For the first time, you can use custom code to modify the data returned by standard S3 GET requests to filter rows, dynamically resize images, redact confidential data, and much more.”

S3 Object Lambda relies on AWS Lambda functions to automatically process the output of each request. AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that doesn’t require users to manage the underlying compute resources.

Poccia said he can see lots of different use cases for S3 Object Lambda. In addition to redacting personally identifiable information, customers might want to convert data to different formats such as XML to JSON, augment their data with information from other services or databases, or compress or decompress files as they’re downloaded by an app.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that the Amazon Simple Storage Service has long ago stopped being simple, and that S3 Object Lambda only adds to its already extensive capabilities.

“It now has the ability to classify data access with code that gets processed by AWS lambda streaming functions. It is an applaudable move as leaky S3 buckets and data piracy have been an issue for enterprises, so it’s good to see AWS offering more options to keep things secure,” Mueller said. “It’s also another data point for the maturization of AWS, which more and more is offering new services that are a combination of other, lower level AWS services. This is great as it increases productivity for teams and operations, while also increasing enterprise’s dependence on AWS.”

Amazon said the S3 Object Lambda tool is available in all public AWS regions with the exception of AWS Asia Pacific (Osaka) Region, AWS GovCloud (US), the AWS China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet, and the AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD.

S3 Object Lambda is priced at a half-cent per gigabyte of data returned. Users will also be billed for each Amazon S3 GET request and their AWS Lambda request and compute charges too.

Image: Amazon Web Services