Amazon Athena introduces system tables for observability, auditing, and usage analytics

Amazon Athena has introduced system tables that automatically capture usage data from queries, storing it as service-managed, read-only Apache Iceberg tables on Amazon S3. This data becomes available within minutes of query completion across all workgroups, eliminating the need for manual data collection or custom pipelines. The tables are managed by AWS, handling schema definition, partitioning, compaction, and snapshot maintenance, reducing operational overhead for users.

Users can query the system tables directly using Athena SQL, enabling observability, usage analysis, and audit use cases without additional setup. The data can be filtered, aggregated, or joined using standard SQL statements, supporting tasks like cost allocation dashboards that track data scanned by workgroup, user, or table. This functionality replaces the need for custom ETL processes to gather and transform usage metrics.

The system tables integrate with existing AWS services, including APIs like GetQueryExecution, CloudWatch metrics, and CloudTrail logs, providing a unified view of Athena usage. Additionally, the AWS Agent Toolkit offers skills to query system tables, surfacing usage patterns and optimization recommendations to help users refine their query strategies and reduce costs.

The system tables are stored in the open Apache Iceberg format, allowing compatibility with other Iceberg-compatible engines such as DuckDB, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon EMR. This launch is available in all AWS Regions where Athena and Amazon S3 Tables are supported, and users can enable the feature via the Athena console or API.