Serverless Data Analytics with Athena and SQL

Organizations generate massive amounts of data daily, but setting up and maintaining traditional database servers to analyze this information is costly and time-consuming. Athena solves this by allowing you to run fast, serverless SQL queries directly on your data stored in cloud storage. This text-based course guides you from a beginner to confidently executing and optimizing serverless queries. You will learn how to write efficient SQL, structure your data to minimize costs, and implement best practices for modern cloud data architectures. What you'll learn: - Understand the fundamentals of serverless analytics and how Athena interacts with cloud storage. - Write structured SQL queries using JOINs, aggregations, and filtering on raw data. - Optimize query performance and reduce costs using data partitioning and compression. - Convert raw data into efficient columnar formats like Parquet to minimize scanned data. - Query complex, semi-structured data formats such as nested JSON documents. - Configure workgroups and data governance policies to manage query execution and budgets. - Explore modern data lakehouse concepts, including basic querying of open table formats like Apache Iceberg. You will start with core serverless concepts and basic SQL syntax before progressing to advanced optimization techniques, data formats, and governance controls through comprehensive written explanations and step-by-step query walkthroughs. This course is designed for aspiring data engineers, analysts, and beginners looking to learn cloud-based data querying, with no prior cloud database experience required. Start reading today to unlock the power of serverless data analytics.