How Analytics Works

Choose your path: a visual tour with diagrams, or a hands-on console tour exploring the AWS infrastructure.

Architecture Tours

Visual Architecture Tour

Understand how data flows from source files through SPICE to interactive dashboards

6 minutes

  1. Data Sources

    Council data is stored in S3 as CSV or Parquet files. AWS Glue Catalog maintains schema information for data discovery.

  2. QuickSight Dataset

    SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine) imports data for fast querying. Datasets define relationships and calculated fields.

  3. Analysis Layer

    Authors create visualizations, add filters, and define parameters. Analyses can contain multiple sheets with different views.

  4. Dashboard Publication

    Analyses are published as read-only dashboards for viewers. Dashboards can be shared, embedded, or scheduled for email.

  5. User Interaction

    Viewers apply filters and drill down without modifying the dashboard. Actions can link between dashboards or external URLs.

  6. Embedding Options

    Dashboards can be embedded in council intranet or portals via secure URLs with row-level security.

Console Architecture Tour

Explore the actual AWS resources powering this analytics solution

10 minutes Requires deployed stack

  1. S3 Data Bucket

    What to look for: CSV/Parquet files, folder structure, data partitioning

    Open AWS Console

  2. Glue Catalog

    What to look for: Database and table definitions, schema columns, data types

    Open AWS Console

  3. QuickSight Console

    What to look for: Datasets, analyses, dashboards, user management

    Open AWS Console

  4. CloudWatch Logs

    What to look for: SPICE refresh logs, error messages, usage metrics

    Open AWS Console

What's Next?

Test the Limits

Large datasets and complex calculations.

Try challenges

Production Guidance

Learn what changes for council reporting.

View guidance