𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐒3 𝐕𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐕𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦?
A few weeks ago, during a late-night debugging session, I realized that half of our team’s cloud bill came from something unexpected not LLM calls, but vector search. That hit me. The infrastructure powering retrieval was actually more expensive than the model generating responses.
Then AWS announced 𝐒3 𝐕𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬, and everyone started asking: Is this the end of vector databases?
Let’s be real. S3 Vectors is impressive: affordable storage, massive scalability, native AWS integration. For small-scale RAG prototypes or internal tools, it’s almost unbeatable. But if you’re running high-performance search, recommendation engines, or multi-tenant AI services, its limitations become clear. Slow writes, capped collection sizes, no hybrid search, and recall that flatlines around 85%.
Still, the big picture isn’t about replacement it’s about 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. We’re entering a new era of 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞. Hot data stays in fast, specialized databases; warm and cold data move to cheaper object storage like S3. This hybrid approach mirrors what happened with traditional databases and data warehouses years ago.
Amazon didn’t just build a competitor they validated an entire market. Their move signals that vector data is no longer niche. It’s foundational.
If you’re exploring how to scale GenAI systems sustainably, the takeaway is clear: don’t think in terms of “killing” or “saving” technologies. Think in 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬. The smartest architectures balance speed, cost, and access because in the end, the future isn’t about one database to rule them all. It’s about the right tool for each layer of the stack.
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You guys really need to add WeAviate, for more complex agents, it's one of the best vector stores available