All 7 Amazon QuickSight & Business Intelligence questions
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What is the difference between SPICE import mode and direct query mode in QuickSight?

Intermediate

Answer

SPICE import mode loads a snapshot of your data into QuickSight's fast in memory engine, which you then refresh on a schedule, providing very fast query performance but with data that can become slightly outdated between refreshes, while direct query mode sends live queries straight to the underlying data source every time a dashboard loads, always showing the most current data but with performance depending entirely on how fast the source system itself can respond.
aws quicksight create-data-set --aws-account-id 123456789012 --data-set-id live-orders --import-mode DIRECT_QUERY
Real-world example An operations dashboard showing live order status uses direct query mode against an RDS database to always reflect the very latest order information, while a historical sales trend report uses SPICE since slightly older data is perfectly acceptable there.

Common follow-ups: Which data sources support direct query mode?;How do you decide which mode is right for a specific dashboard?

RDS & Databases;Amazon DynamoDB
All 7 Amazon QuickSight & Business Intelligence questions