In production ML workflows, data scientists and data engineers frequently try to improve their models in various ways, such as by performing Perform Automatic Model Tuning, training on additional or more-recent data, and improving feature selection. Performing A/B testing between a new model and an old model with production traffic can be an effective final step in the validation process for a new model. In A/B testing, you test different variants of your models and compare how each variant performs relative to each other. You then choose the best-performing model to replace a previously-existing model new version delivers better performance than the previously-existing version.
Amazon SageMaker enables you to test multiple models or model versions behind the same endpoint using production variants. Each production variant identifies a machine learning (ML) model and the resources deployed for hosting the model. You can distribute endpoint invocation requests across multiple production variants by providing the traffic distribution for each variant, or you can invoke a specific variant directly for each request.
In this notebook we'll:
- Evaluate models by invoking specific variants
- Gradually release a new model by specifying traffic distribution