MotherDuck is a cloud version of DuckDB (an embedded SQL database). Instead of managing servers/warehouses, you query data in S3 with SQL. MotherDuck handles scaling, caching, and optimization. Pay per query executed. A typical workflow: store data in S3 (parquet/iceberg), query with MotherDuck, visualize results. No ETL pipelines, no data copying, no infrastructure management.