Which Kinesis service is specifically designed for real-time processing of streaming data?

Kinesis Data Streams is specifically designed for real-time processing of streaming data, making it an ideal choice for applications that require low-latency data access and processing. It allows you to build applications that can continuously capture and process streaming data from a variety of sources, such as website clickstreams, database event streams, or social media feeds.

This service enables you to ingest raw streaming data, which can then be processed by multiple consumers in parallel. With features like shard management, data retention policies, and support for real-time analytics, Kinesis Data Streams is optimized for scenarios where immediate access to data is critical, such as monitoring, visualization, and real-time analytics applications.

Other services in the Kinesis suite serve different purposes. For example, Kinesis Data Analytics is focused on analyzing data in real-time using SQL queries but relies on the streams created by Kinesis Data Streams or Kinesis Data Firehose for input. Kinesis Data Firehose is designed for loading streaming data into data lakes, warehouses, and analytics services, and is primarily used for batch processing rather than real-time processing. The Kinesis Application Service is not a recognized term within the Kinesis offerings, which adds further clarity to the distinction of Kinesis Data Streams as the best option