Overview

Serverless query services (e.g., Amazon Athena, Google BigQuery Omni) allow you to run SQL queries against data stored in 'data lakes' (like S3 or GCS) without needing to load the data into a database first. You only pay for the queries you run.

Key Features

  • No Infrastructure: No servers to provision or manage.
  • Standard SQL: Uses standard SQL syntax for querying.
  • Support for Many Formats: Can query CSV, JSON, Parquet, ORC, and Avro files.
  • Pay-per-Query: Cost is typically based on the amount of data scanned by each query.

Use Cases

  • Ad-hoc analysis of log files.
  • Querying data in a data lake.
  • Quick data exploration before building a formal data warehouse.

Related Terms