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Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) Reviews & Product Details

Amazon SWF is an application that helps developers build, run, and scale background jobs that have parallel or sequential steps it has a fully-managed state tracker and task coordinator in the Cloud.

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Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Discussions

Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) Community

Product Description

Amazon SWF is an application that helps developers build, run, and scale background jobs that have parallel or sequential steps it has a fully-managed state tracker and task coordinator in the Cloud.

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Perceived Cost

$$$$$

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austin s.

Analyst

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

6/17/2020

"easy to use, understand, and implement"

5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

the ability and ease at which I can organize my inflow inputs and outputs of tasks, as well as easy to understand navigation - keep historical logs of workflows, easily organize and see any upcoming workload Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

can be difficult to integrate with some tasks and programs, but that is the outlier, easier to work with AWS programs, which can add up in cost Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

Great product, especially implemented with other products from the AWS system Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

we are solving the inability we had to maintain an organized and tracked distributed application state, this has greatly improved employee productivity and decreased downtime Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Morgan G.

Senior Software Engineer

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/28/2019

"Simple, easy to use Work flow."

5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

What I like about AWS Simple Work Flow is it has all kind of APIs that connect all AWS services together for your use and runs stable. You can design your work flow very easily and scale it with simple configuration. It has the ability to scale to match your business growth. I also like the notification it pushes to system operators that we don't have to manually check where the workflow is now. Overall, I am very happy about AWS SWF brought to our team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

I have not found anything I do not like yet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

For companies that need data processing or monitoring. Workflow can help do it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

We designed a workflow to process data from different terminals and get notified when it is done. AWS Simple work flow provides simple stable function to make it happen. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Austin C.

Solutions Architect

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/28/2019

"Old, bulky, and not generalizable"

1.5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

SWF is good at holding state for a very long time and integrating with a lot of different services. It's one of few services good at integrating with human feedback when a portion of your workflow occurs in the real, physical world. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

It is extremely bulky and finicky. We had issues with it failing to recognize events and querying the state is extremely unwieldy. We used a serverless system to query the workflow to figure out current state and it was terrible to do, because it required downloading the entire history of the entire workflow to get to the most recent events. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

Only use SWF if you absolutely must avoid serverless services like lambda or if you need to keep state for a workflow in the time frame of weeks/months and not just hours or days. Step functions is a far superior service if you only need to maintain workflow state for at at most a couple days. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

We used it to maintain state for an async, stateless, serverless application which was monitoring a workflow process. It can store an incredible amount of information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/20/2019

"Simple Workflows get stuff done"

4/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

SWF is a quick and efficient solution to triggering workflows and getting work done in an automated fashion. It can be combined with Lambda for serverless solutions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

Based on my usage of Amazon Simple Workflow so far, there haven't been any opportunities for me to dislike something about the console.

In regards to the technology in general though, it is hard to think of solutions in a step function fashion. CloudWatch also has limitations in terms of latency. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

Getting started is simple with the automatic sample workflow AWS provides. It allows you to quickly spin up an EC2 instance and trigger a workflow to see how it works. Documentation is extensive so use that to your advantage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

Currently I am using simple workflow service to allow blog readers to subscribe and choose different notification preferences. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Broadcast Media

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

1/22/2019

"Managing Complex Workflows Across Platforms and Geographical Locations"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

SWF is a great framework for formalizing complex workflows. It establishes a standard methodology that facilitates the integrations of tasks and jobs that are designed and fulfilled in disparate locations so that the various teams get the necessary visibility into the processes that precede as well as follow their own tasks. This applies at the human level as well as the software level where applications notify each other of progress in a methodical manner. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

As can be expected of such a powerful tool, the ramp up process is difficult. It is possible that the workflow control will have to be adjusted several times to account for unforeseen situations before a stable workflow is achieved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

Once the team is past the initial ramp up period, the productivity is tremendous and the reliability excellent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

A TV broadcast center required a complex content workflow for purchasing, converting, editing, adding subtitles or voice overs, scheduling and reconciling airing events. Starting with the business side where content contracts were signed that included the airing rights period and payments that required notifying the media library personnel to perform their tasks and generated electronic as well as printed work orders for every step along the way. As the content preparations were finalized the workflow notified the schedulers of its availability for airing and the preferred air dates. SWF completed the workflow by reconciling airing events with the content provider for payment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Human Resources

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

1/22/2019

"The SWF Experience "

3.5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

AWS API directly (using the .Net SDK).

If you are using Java Or Ruby amazon provider a higher level library for SWF called Flow Framework. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

Rate Limiting and Throttling. More specifically, limiting number of operations per second. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

When I first read about SWF I had a concept of tiny workers and deciders working together like ants to achieve a greater goal Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

Our project is based on C#. We are using the AWS API directly (using the .Net SDK).

If you are using Java Or Ruby amazon provider a higher level library for SWF called Flow Framework. For C#, I wrote what I needed myself, or simply used the “low level” API.

Out project processes a large number of files daily, and it was my task to convert our previous batch-based solution to SWF. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Thomas K.

I am a security Advisor at my organization

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/29/2019

"Scalable and very easy to work with"

5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

This AWS simple work flow is very good such that the logical separation of the control flow happens very quick and the flow is very flexible to work with. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

I do not dislike anything as of now If there is any I will inform to G2 Crowd Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

I would like to recommend this to others who are using multiple tools to work with in the same application. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are trying to solve the use of multiple tools for the same application using this SWF Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Felix N.

SEO and BI Analytics Associate

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/29/2019

"Amazing experience and easy to "

4.5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

Great user interface with simple navigation. Easy to monitor via Amazon Cloudwatch. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

The number of operations per seconds are limited and could be difficult to raise. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Executive Office

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/29/2019

"Very helpful & beneficial!"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

I like the smoothness of it all, along with the accurateness! Easy to understand & flow thru the process! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF)?

Nothing really! It has been easy to process thru things & quite understandable! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF):

I would say to at the MINIMUM, give it a try! I don't think you would be disappointed! The ease of it alone makes it worth it! Even the "adjustments" to it make it exceptional to use! If your new to anything like it; i would recommend that you should start here with this! Go from there! I do think you will be please with it though! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF) solving and how is that benefiting you?

assisting people with the needs as well as wants! That's the key! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.