Amazon SageMaker AI is a cloud-based machine-learning platform that allows the creation, training, and deployment by developers of machine-learning (ML) models on the cloud. It can be used to deploy ML models on

embedded systems An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is em ...

and edge-devices. The platform was launched in November 2017.

Capabilities

SageMaker enables developers to operate at a number of different levels of abstraction when training and deploying machine learning models. At its highest level of abstraction, SageMaker provides pre-trained ML models that can be deployed as-is. In addition, it offers a number of built-in ML algorithms that developers can train on their own data. The platform also features managed instances of

TensorFlow TensorFlow is a Library (computing), software library for machine learning and artificial intelligence. It can be used across a range of tasks, but is used mainly for Types of artificial neural networks#Training, training and Statistical infer ...

and Apache MXNet, where developers can create their own ML algorithms from scratch. Regardless of which level of abstraction is used, a developer can connect their SageMaker-enabled ML models to other AWS services, such as the Amazon DynamoDB database for structured data storage, AWS Batch for offline batch processing, or Amazon Kinesis for real-time processing.

Development interfaces

A number of interfaces are available for developers to interact with SageMaker. First, there is a web

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

that remotely controls a SageMaker server instance. While the web API is agnostic to the programming language used by the developer, Amazon provides SageMaker API bindings for a number of languages, including Python,

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

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, and Go. In addition, SageMaker provides managed Jupyter Notebook instances for interactively programming SageMaker and other applications.

History and features

* 2017-11-29: SageMaker is launched at the AWS re:Invent conference. * 2018-02-27: Managed

and MXNet

deep neural network Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural network (machine learning), neural networks to perform tasks such as Statistical classification, classification, Regression analysis, regression, and re ...

training and inference are now supported within SageMaker. *2018-02-28: SageMaker automatically scales model inference to multiple server instances. *2018-07-13: Support is added for

recurrent neural network Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a class of artificial neural networks designed for processing sequential data, such as text, speech, and time series, where the order of elements is important. Unlike feedforward neural networks, which proces ...

training,

word2vec Word2vec is a technique in natural language processing (NLP) for obtaining vector representations of words. These vectors capture information about the meaning of the word based on the surrounding words. The word2vec algorithm estimates these rep ...

training, multi-class linear learner training, and distributed deep neural network training in Chainer with Layer-wise Adaptive Rate Scaling (LARS). *2018-07-17: AWS Batch Transform enables high-throughput non-real-time machine learning inference in SageMaker. *2018-11-08: Support for training and inference of Object2Vec word embeddings. *2018-11-27: SageMaker Ground Truth "makes it much easier for developers to label their data using human annotators through

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, third-party vendors, or their own employees." *2018-11-28: SageMaker

Reinforcement Learning Reinforcement learning (RL) is an interdisciplinary area of machine learning and optimal control concerned with how an intelligent agent should take actions in a dynamic environment in order to maximize a reward signal. Reinforcement learnin ...

(RL) "enables developers and data scientists to quickly and easily develop reinforcement learning models at scale." *2018-11-28: SageMaker Neo enables deep neural network models to be deployed from SageMaker to edge-devices such as smartphones and smart cameras. *2018-11-29: The AWS Marketplace for SageMaker is launched. The AWS Marketplace enables 3rd-party developers to buy and sell machine learning models that can be trained and deployed in SageMaker. *2019-01-27: SageMaker Neo is released as open-source software.

Notable Customers

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

is using SageMaker to train deep neural networks on 70 years of video data. * Carsales.com uses SageMaker to train and deploy machine learning models to analyze and approve automotive classified ad listings. * Avis Budget Group and Slalom Consulting are using SageMaker to develop "a practical on-site solution that could address the over and under utilization of cars in real-time using an optimization engine built in Amazon SageMaker." *

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxon ...

uses SageMaker to develop and deploy machine learning in its manufacturing plants. * Peak and Footasylum use SageMaker in a recommendation engine for footwear.

Awards

In 2019, CIOL named SageMaker one of the "5 Best Machine Learning Platforms For Developers," alongside

IBM Watson IBM Watson is a computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language. It was developed as a part of IBM's DeepQA project by a research team, led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's fou ...

, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning,

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

PredictionIO, and AiONE.

References