Ashutosh Sanzgiri

Getting started with SageMaker Studio Lab

Ashutosh Sanzgiri -

I have just started playing with SageMaker Studio Lab and think it is a worthy contender to Google Colab.  

Registration Link: https://studiolab.sagemaker.aws/

FAQ: https://studiolab.sagemaker.aws/faq

Like Google Colab, it is a free service, and is separate from your AWS subscription.

Some of the pros I see are:

  • You get 15 GB persistent storage, so although you have to install all the python packages you need, they persist when you stop/restart your server.
  • You can use a Git workflow with your notebooks (clone git repo, push to github etc.). Note that for github, you can save your personal access token using the command git config --global credential.helper store
  • You get a JupyterLab IDE and can install extensions.
  • You get a newer version of Python 3.9.7 (with Colab you get 3.7.12).

Unlike Google Colab, there are no packages installed by default. So you do have to install them (albeit just once).

Like Google Colab, you can add an "Open in Studio Lab"  badge to your github repo.