N
The Global Insight

What is AWS Athena used for?

Author

James Olson

Updated on February 24, 2026

Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run. Athena is easy to use.

What is the underlying technology behind Amazon Athena?

Presto
Q: What is the underlying technology behind Amazon Athena? Amazon Athena uses Presto with full standard SQL support and works with a variety of standard data formats, including CSV, JSON, ORC, Avro, and Parquet. Athena can handle complex analysis, including large joins, window functions, and arrays.

How does AWS Athena works?

Athena works directly with data stored in S3. Athena uses Presto, a distributed SQL engine to run queries. It also uses Apache Hive to create, drop, and alter tables and partitions. Athena uses an approach known as schema-on-read, which allows you to project your schema on to your data at the time you execute a query.

Can AWS Athena write to S3?

Files Written to Amazon S3 Athena writes files to source data locations in Amazon S3 as a result of the INSERT command. Each INSERT operation creates a new file, rather than appending to an existing file. The file locations depend on the structure of the table and the SELECT query, if present.

Is Athena faster than redshift?

Query 1: Simple Select We started by testing the normal scan speed of the data set. The same query was executed in both the environments. With a simple where clause, we tried to filter out rows from the data set. Athena gave the best results, completing the scan in just 2.53 sec compared to 41.35 sec in Redshift.

What is Athena under the hood?

AWS Athena is a serverless interactive analytics service offered by Amazon that can be readily used to gain insights on data residing in S3. Under to hood, Athena used a distributed SQL engine called Presto, which is used to run the SQL queries.

Is Amazon Athena expensive?

Athena costs $5 per TB of compressed data scanned. While you incur no additional costs for DDL statements or failed queries, standard charges of other AWS resources like S3 bucket, Lambda, Glue Data Catalog, etc., apply if provisioned.

Can I use Athena without glue?

Before you upgrade, Athena manages the data catalog, so Athena actions must be allowed for your users to perform queries. After you upgrade to the AWS Glue Data Catalog, Athena actions no longer apply to accessing the AWS Glue Data Catalog, so AWS Glue actions must be allowed for your users.

Is Athena cheaper than redshift?

Redshift is more expensive as you are paying for both storage and compute, compared to Athena’s decoupled architecture. A highly optimized Redshift cluster with sufficient compute resources will most likely return results faster than the same query in Athena.

Is Athena expensive?

What’s the core principle of the company Athena?

Cost Effective . Results Driven. Athena exists to support the modern grower, no matter the scale. Our core principle is to formulate products that improve quality, reduce costs and drive consistency. Athena was born in the grow rooms of Los Angeles, California, where we are always in pursuit of the perfect run.

Who is the CEO of Athena Health Care?

After the Veritas acquisition and Virence merger were completed in 2019, athenahealth CEO Bob Segert spoke with Healthcare IT News about the company’s go-forward strategy after a bumpy few years. Specifically, he spoke of the integration of legacy Centricity technology into athenahealth’s own product lines.

Who is the parent company of athenahealth Centricity?

Its new name comes two years after athenahealth was acquired for $5.7 billion by Veritas Capital and merged with Veritas-owned Virence Health, which itself was renamed from the value-based care group of GE Healthcare when it was acquired by Veritas. Centricity, of course, was a core product of GE Healthcare.

What are the pros and cons of Athena?

Nutrients in granular form. For the pros Balanced Nutrition . Cost Effective . Results Driven. Athena exists to support the modern grower, no matter the scale. Our core principle is to formulate products that improve quality, reduce costs and drive consistency.