# How Partition Access Visualizations Reduced our Data Lake S3 Cost by 33%

DevFeed: [How Partition Access Visualizations Reduced our Data Lake S3 Cost by 33%](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-partition-access-visualizations-reduced-our-data-lake-s3-cost-by-33-27427.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://engineeringblog.yelp.com/2026/05/partition-access-visualizations.html>)

Author: Nick Del Nano, Data Streaming

Published: 2026-05-21T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Yelp](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/yelp.md>)

Topics: [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [data lake](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-lake.md>), [Apache Iceberg](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/apache-iceberg.md>), [Amazon S3](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-s3.md>), [AWS IAM](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/aws-iam.md>)

Tags: [analytics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/analytics.md>), [apache-iceberg](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apache-iceberg.md>), [aws](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/aws.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [data-lake](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-lake.md>), [iam](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/iam.md>), [partition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/partition.md>), [s3](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/s3.md>)

## AI overview

Yelp describes visualizations that map partition keys against access-event timestamps to reveal daily batch jobs, backfills, and ad hoc queries. The resulting usage attribution supported Apache Iceberg migration and storage-efficiency work that reduced the cost of its petabyte-scale data lake by 33%.

## Source excerpt

Introduction In large analytics environments, data teams often struggle to answer deceptively simple questions, like who their stakeholders are and how their data is being used. At Yelp, we address this by visualizing access patterns, plotting time-based partition key values against access event timestamps. These visualizations reveal distinct usage signatures - ad hoc queries, daily batch jobs, and periodic backfills - allowing data owners to understand their stakeholders and use cases. This deeper insight into data usage has enabled high-impact platform initiatives including migrating thousands of tables to Apache Iceberg format and identifying storage efficiencies which reduced the cost of...