---
title: "How data source queries work | Grafana Labs"
description: "Query cloud data in place with Grafana data sources, without extra ingestion or storage."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Data source architecture

[Data source architecture: Grafana queries cloud provider APIs in real-time](cp-olly-direct-query-light.svg "Data source architecture: Grafana queries cloud provider APIs in real-time")

> **Important:** This section covers **Grafana data source plugins**, which are a core Grafana capability available in **all Grafana editions** (OSS, Enterprise, and Cloud). Data sources are **not part of the Cloud Provider Observability product**. They’re included in this journey because they offer an alternative path to cloud visibility that may suit certain use cases.

## How it works

| Step | Description                                                  |
|------|--------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1    | Configure cloud provider credentials in Grafana.             |
| 2    | Data stays in CloudWatch / Azure Monitor / Cloud Monitoring. |
| 3    | Grafana queries cloud API in real-time.                      |
| 4    | No data duplication or additional storage.                   |

## When to choose this approach

| Choose a data source when…                                | Choose Cloud Provider Observability when…                |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| You want to avoid extra ingestion and storage cost        | You want prebuilt dashboards and alerts                  |
| The data you need is within your cloud’s retention window | You need to retain data longer than your cloud keeps it  |
| You’re comfortable using each cloud’s own query language  | You want one query language across clouds (PromQL/LogQL) |
| You want to keep setup simple                             | You want to avoid per-query API cost and rate limits     |