# Athena

**Introduction**

* Serverless SQL queries on top of your data in S3, pay per query, output to S3.
* Supports CSV, JSON, Parquet, ORC
* Queries are logged in CloudTrail (which can be chained with CloudWatch logs)
* Great for sporadic queries
  * If need to "Join", use Redshift Spectrum.
* Ready-to-use queries for VPC Flow logs, CloudTrail, ALB Access Logs, cost and usage reports (billing), etc.

**Quicksight + Athena architecture example**

![Quicksight + Athena architecture example](https://3303577320-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M4cDbT2F2VmcAohuhSN%2F-MEWe5n8DO8LfKX37bap%2F-MEY3ZepJeXl4b2xsn5h%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-08-12%20at%2010.26.56%20PM.png?alt=media\&token=5a64f698-3aa6-4523-988d-44bb42b5d478)