Following partnerships with Google Cloud, Snowflake, Salesforce, and Databricks, Workday is now also connecting its Data Cloud to AWS. This gives developers access to Workday data from within AWS, thereby avoiding the notorious egress costs associated with public clouds. Workday Data Lake, Data Connect, and Live Data Query will be available to AWS users via Early Access.
Previously, “shadow databases” were an obvious option for organizations that wanted this data to be directly available via AWS. Custom pipelines are also an option, but Workday points out that this is a vulnerable setup. The alternative is true integration, which allows AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock to be directly connected to Workday’s data layer.
That data layer contains the business definitions, metrics, and security context that AI agents require to function optimally. Conversely, agents built in Workday can also access AWS data. This is yet another indication that Workday is no longer the “walled garden” it once sought to be. The reasons for this are multifaceted, but Workday itself already offers some insight.
“When developers apply AI to systems that affect people and money, it impacts critical decision-making where there is no room for error,” says Gabe Monroy, CTO at Workday. Through Workday’s Agent Gateway, AWS-built AI agents have secure access to payroll data, benefits, and finance, with the same governance, permissions, and audit controls as native Workday agents.
Three components in early access
The integration is part of Workday Data Cloud, which was announced last September at Workday Rising. Three features are now available to AWS customers in Early Access. Workday Data Lake provides a curated, unified view of HR and financial data, enriched with external sources and semantic definitions. Workday Data Connect uses Apache Iceberg and out-of-the-box connectors for zero-copy access—again, without any manual effort. Workday Live Data Query offers near-real-time access to HR and financial data via SQL, JDBC, and Python, enabling applications to respond immediately to current business situations.
The access model, business logic, and audit controls travel with the data, as Workday describes it. This way, administrators don’t have to reconstruct who has access to what.
Broader platform strategy
The AWS integration thus complements existing integrations with Databricks, Google Cloud, Salesforce, and Snowflake. Workday is further expanding its platform for agent-based development in many areas: earlier this year, the company introduced Developer Agent and Agent-Ready Tools via Workday Build, specifically designed to accelerate the development of secure AI agents based on Workday data.
Workday Data Connect, Workday Live Data Query, and Workday Data Lake are now available to early adopters. General availability is scheduled for later this year.