Business Intelligence Dashboard Using AWS and Metabase
This case study demonstrates the implementation of a cost-effective, scalable Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard using Metabase and AWS services, enabling real-time insights and efficient data management. The solution centralizes data, provides customizable reporting, and streamlines decision-making for businesses of all sizes.
12/16/20245 min read
Business Intelligence Dashboard Using AWS and Metabase
Client Overview: The client, a small-to-medium-sized business, was facing challenges in making data-driven decisions due to fragmented and inaccessible data. Traditional business intelligence (BI) tools were cost-prohibitive and difficult for non-technical users to operate, making it challenging for the business to extract valuable insights from their data. They needed a solution that would enable them to centralize their data, provide real-time analytics, and offer a flexible, easy-to-use platform for generating business insights.
Problem Statement:
The client faced several obstacles in managing their data:
High Costs: Traditional BI tools like Tableau and Power BI came with high licensing fees, especially as more users needed access.
Complexity: Existing tools were difficult to learn and required technical expertise, making them less accessible for non-technical users.
Limited Integration: Many of the BI tools did not integrate seamlessly with all the databases the client used, leading to fragmented data views.
No Real-Time Analytics: The client’s tools did not update data in real time, leading to delays in decision-making based on outdated information.
Vendor Lock-In: The proprietary nature of closed-source solutions limited the client's ability to customize the platform according to specific needs.
Solution Overview:
To address these challenges, the client adopted Metabase, an open-source business intelligence tool, combined with AWS services to create a scalable, cost-effective, and flexible data analytics platform. The solution was designed to centralize data, provide real-time insights, and enable easy customization. By leveraging Amazon ECS, Fargate, RDS, and other AWS services, the client was able to create a powerful BI dashboard without the high costs associated with traditional BI solutions.
Solution Description:
Affordable and Cost-Effective Solution:
Metabase was chosen due to its open-source nature, eliminating high licensing fees and enabling the client to scale the platform without incurring additional user-based charges. Since Metabase is free to use, it reduced the operational costs significantly when compared to traditional BI tools that charge for every user and license.
Easy to Use:
Metabase offers an intuitive, user-friendly interface that allows business users to generate insights and create reports without requiring technical skills or coding. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy for users to explore data, build dashboards, and visualize trends, enabling non-technical users to derive meaningful insights from their data.
Seamless Integration with Data Sources:
The solution integrates Metabase with a variety of data sources, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Google Analytics. This allows the client to centralize all customer and business data in one place, enabling more efficient analysis and decision-making. By unifying data sources, the client was able to eliminate silos and ensure that the entire organization had access to a single, accurate view of their data.
AWS Services Integration:
To ensure a secure, reliable, and scalable infrastructure, the solution incorporated several AWS services:
Amazon Route 53: Used for routing traffic and ensuring high availability, Route 53 provided DNS services for the Metabase deployment.
Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service): The Metabase application was containerized using Docker and deployed on ECS with Fargate to manage the infrastructure automatically. This serverless approach reduced the need for manual infrastructure management and provided scalability based on demand.
Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service): For data storage, the solution used Amazon RDS, which provided a secure and scalable database solution for storing and querying business data.
Application Load Balancer (ALB): The ALB was used to distribute traffic across ECS tasks, ensuring the system remained highly available and responsive.
NAT Gateway and Internet Gateway: Managed secure internet access while maintaining the security of private subnets for Metabase containers.
AWS Secrets Manager: Used for securely storing sensitive information, like database credentials, and ensuring security best practices.
IAM (Identity and Access Management): Controlled user access to AWS services, ensuring that only authorized users could interact with Metabase.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR): Hosted the Docker container images for Metabase, providing a secure, scalable, and private registry.
Terraform: Used for automating the infrastructure setup, enabling quick deployments and management of resources.
Real-Time Insights:
One of the primary features of the solution is the ability to provide real-time analytics. As data is automatically refreshed, business users can access up-to-date information to make immediate decisions without delays. This is critical for fast-paced business environments where timely decisions can make a significant difference.
Flexible and Customizable:
Metabase’s open-source nature allowed the solution to be easily customized to meet the client’s specific business needs. Unlike closed-source solutions, this approach gave the client the flexibility to modify the platform, add new features, and make adjustments as their business evolved.
Solution Resolution:
Centralized Data Management:
Problem: The client struggled with fragmented data stored across multiple systems, making it difficult to gain a unified view of their business.
Resolution: By integrating Metabase with AWS services like RDS, the solution consolidated all business data into a single location, improving data accessibility and providing a unified view for better analysis.
Scalable and Flexible BI Platform:
Problem: The client faced scalability issues with traditional BI tools that could not keep up with the growing volume of data.
Resolution: Amazon ECS with Fargate provided a serverless environment for the Metabase application, allowing the platform to automatically scale as the business needs grew, without requiring additional infrastructure management.
Real-Time Analytics:
Problem: Traditional BI tools had limitations in real-time data updates, leading to outdated information.
Resolution: The solution integrated real-time data updates using Amazon RDS and ECS, ensuring the client had access to the most up-to-date information for immediate decision-making.
Cost Efficiency:
Problem: The client was seeking a cost-effective solution to replace expensive BI tools that charged per user or had high licensing fees.
Resolution: By utilizing Metabase (an open-source tool) and AWS services, the client significantly reduced the costs associated with licensing, as well as the operational overhead of managing on-premises infrastructure.
Key Benefits:
Cost Savings: The solution eliminated the need for expensive licensing fees and per-user charges associated with traditional BI tools. The use of Metabase, combined with AWS services, reduced operational costs significantly.
Scalability: With AWS ECS and Fargate, the platform scaled seamlessly as the business grew. The system could handle increasing amounts of data and user traffic without any performance bottlenecks.
Real-Time Data: Automatic data updates ensured that users always had access to the most current information, enabling faster and more accurate decision-making.
Ease of Use: Metabase’s intuitive, user-friendly interface made it easy for non-technical users to generate insights, create dashboards, and make data-driven decisions.
Security: AWS IAM, Secrets Manager, and RDS ensured that the platform was secure and compliant with best practices for data protection.
Architecture:
The architecture combines AWS container services with Metabase to create a scalable, secure, and highly available BI dashboard platform. The core components of the architecture include:
Amazon ECS with Fargate for serverless container management.
Amazon Route 53 for traffic routing and DNS management.
Amazon RDS for relational database management and storage.
Application Load Balancer (ALB) for traffic distribution and load balancing.
Amazon ECR for secure storage of Docker images.
AWS Secrets Manager and IAM for security and access control.
Architecture Diagram:
Cost Estimation:
The estimated monthly cost for running the Metabase Business Intelligence Dashboard on AWS includes:
Amazon ECS (Fargate): Cost for serverless compute resources based on usage.
Amazon RDS: Cost for relational database storage and queries.
Elastic Load Balancer (ALB): Charges for managing traffic across ECS tasks.
AWS Secrets Manager: Cost for securely storing credentials and sensitive information.
Data Transfer and Storage: Charges for data processing and storage in Amazon S3.
The estimated total monthly cost is $250 to $3500, depending on the size of the deployment and usage patterns.
Conclusion:
By integrating Metabase with AWS services like ECS, Fargate, RDS, and Route 53, the client successfully created a cost-effective, scalable, and real-time business intelligence dashboard. The solution enabled the client to centralize their data, generate insights on-demand, and make data-driven decisions efficiently. The open-source nature of Metabase, combined with the powerful AWS cloud infrastructure, provided the client with the flexibility, scalability, and cost savings they needed to optimize their operations and improve overall business performance. This modern BI solution will continue to scale with the client’s growing data needs while providing real-time insights to guide their business decisions.
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