If you are a current or new CloudTrail customer, you can immediately begin using the CloudTrail Lake capability to run queries by enabling the feature through the API or the CloudTrail console.
Select the CloudTrail Lake tab on the left panel of the CloudTrail console, and select the Create Event Data Store button. When you create an event data store, you choose the pricing option you want to use for the event data store. The pricing option determines the cost for ingesting events and the maximum and default retention period for the event data store. Then, select the event categories you want to log (management, data, and network activity events). Additionally, you can take advantage of enhanced event filtering capabilities to control which CloudTrail events are ingested into your event data stores, helping you increase efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining visibility into relevant activities. Once your event data store is set up, you can query any event data stores that you own or manage using SQL-based queries. For users less familiar with SQL, natural language query generation is available to help create SQL queries.
Additionally, query results can be summarized (in preview) using generative AI, further enhancing your ability to derive insights from your CloudTrail data. To help visualize your CloudTrail Lake data, you can use pre-curated dashboards available directly within the CloudTrail console, providing out-of-the-box visibility and key insights from your audit and security data. For more targeted monitoring and analysis, you also have the option to create custom dashboards tailored to your specific needs.