Modern data teams have embraced AWS lakehouse architectures, combining services like Redshift, Athena, Glue, and S3 to build flexible, scalable data environments. While this architecture works beautifully for analytics and business operations, it creates a major challenge for security and compliance teams: monitoring database activity in a meaningful, centralized way.
Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) is a critical capability for protecting sensitive data, detecting security incidents, and meeting compliance obligations. But in cloud-native environments like AWS lakehouses, DAM is either missing entirely, fragmented across services, or relies on outdated, on-premises concepts.
In this post, I’ll explain why you might need DAM for your AWS lakehouse, review what AWS’s native services offer (and where they fall short), and show how Satori provides a cleaner, more scalable way to handle DAM without overcomplicating your environment.
Why You Might Actually Need DAM
The first step in any DAM project is being clear about why you need it. Some organizations are primarily driven by compliance requirements, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, which mandate activity logging and security controls for sensitive data. Others want DAM to improve their security incident detection and response processes by catching things like credential misuse, anomalous queries, or unauthorized access attempts.
Another common reason is monitoring privileged users, including DBAs, data engineers, and contractors, who may have legitimate access but still need oversight. DAM can also help you track general data usage – who’s accessing sensitive information, when, and from where – which can inform both security decisions and operational analytics.
In some cases, teams use DAM to prevent policy violations by blocking risky queries or masking sensitive data fields in real time. Whatever your reasons, having a clear understanding of your use cases makes it easier to pick the right tools and approach.
Are You All-In on AWS, or Is Multi-Cloud in Your Future?
Next, it’s important to consider your infrastructure. Many fast-growing companies are primarily AWS-based today but either already use, or plan to use, services like Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery in other clouds.
If your environment is entirely AWS-native, it might seem reasonable to rely on AWS’s own monitoring and logging services. However, if you’re multi-cloud – or even thinking about it – you’ll likely need a more cloud-agnostic DAM strategy. A solution that only works in AWS will quickly become a limiting factor once your data landscape expands.
What AWS Native DAM Capabilities Actually Offer (and Where They Fall Short)
AWS offers a handful of native services that can approximate some DAM functionality, but none provide a complete, unified solution. CloudTrail is useful for monitoring API calls and administrative events but doesn’t capture individual SQL queries or data access at the database level.
Some AWS data services, like Redshift and Athena, offer their own query logs and audit trails. While these can track activity, they typically require enabling and managing logs individually for each service, lack real-time monitoring or alerting, and don’t allow you to enforce access or query policies dynamically.
AWS Macie is a data classification and discovery tool, not a DAM solution. It helps identify sensitive data in S3 but doesn’t monitor database activity or enforce controls. AWS Lake Formation provides access management at the table and column level but doesn’t capture query activity or offer centralized monitoring.
The bottom line is that AWS’s tools form a patchwork of logs, alerts, and configurations that are difficult to centralize and scale. None offer real-time, policy-based DAM across your entire AWS lakehouse.
How Satori Solves DAM for AWS Lakehouse Environments
Satori simplifies DAM in AWS environments by providing a plug-and-play solution that integrates directly with AWS data services like Redshift, Athena, and S3 (via Presto, Trino, or other engines). It delivers centralized, real-time monitoring of database activity, making it easy to track who is accessing what data, from where, and when.
Beyond monitoring, Satori enables fine-grained access control and query-level policy enforcement without requiring code changes or significant infrastructure adjustments. It can anonymize or redact sensitive data on-the-fly based on policies you define, helping to protect personal or regulated information without disrupting workflows.
Satori also provides out-of-the-box audit logs and compliance reports tailored for standards like SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. The platform gives security and compliance teams a single, unified console to view and control data access activity across AWS services – and extends seamlessly to multi-cloud environments if needed.
When to Use Satori for DAM on Your AWS Lakehouse
There are several clear signals that it might be time to move from AWS’s native tools to a dedicated DAM solution like Satori. If your data environment has outgrown native logging and you need better visibility into data access, Satori offers centralized, real-time monitoring without the complexity of managing service-specific logs.
If auditors, customers, or regulators are starting to request real-time activity monitoring and compliance reporting, Satori makes it easy to meet those expectations. It’s also a strong fit if your data services are multiplying and you’re struggling to centralize logs or enforce policies consistently.
When you need to actively enforce query policies – such as blocking risky queries or masking sensitive fields in real-time – rather than just logging activity after the fact, Satori can fill that gap. And if you’re already multi-cloud, or planning to be, Satori provides a unified DAM platform that works across AWS, Snowflake, Databricks, and other cloud data platforms.
Final Thoughts: Let’s Solve the DAM Problem
Database Activity Monitoring is a critical part of any cloud data security strategy, but traditional DAM tools weren’t built for the complexity and scale of modern AWS lakehouse environments. AWS’s native services offer pieces of the puzzle, but assembling them into a reliable, scalable, and policy-driven DAM solution is a painful, ongoing project.
Satori solves this problem with a cloud-native DAM platform designed for modern data architectures. It delivers real-time monitoring, policy enforcement, and compliance reporting without the headaches of managing logs and fragmented tools.
If you’re ready to simplify your AWS lakehouse security and finally get the DAM visibility you need, learn more about Satori:
- Book a demo with our team
- Get the DAM Solution Overview
- Read an overview of Satori’s Data Security Platform
