Two of the most widely used Microsoft data tools — Excel (via Power Query) and Power BI Desktop — now run natively on ARM64 Windows. As ARM64 devices become more common in enterprise environments, this demands ARM64-compatible data connectors to the sources these tools query. For AWS data services, that gap is significant: AWS's own drivers do not support ARM64 on Windows for Athena or Redshift and provide no Windows ODBC drivers at all for S3 or DynamoDB.
CData provides native ARM64-compatible ODBC drivers and connectors for Power BI and Excel across Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift, Amazon S3, and Amazon DynamoDB, filling the connectivity gap for Microsoft analytics tools on ARM64 Windows.
Excel and Power BI on ARM64 Windows
Microsoft 365 apps — including Excel — have shipped as native ARM64 applications on Windows since 2021. These apps use Microsoft's ARM64EC technology, which allows native ARM64 code to run alongside x64 components for add-in compatibility. Excel connects to external data sources through Power Query, which uses ODBC drivers when querying databases and cloud data services. For Power Query to work natively on ARM64, the underlying ODBC driver must also be compiled for ARM64.
Power BI Desktop added native ARM64 Windows support in its October 2025 release (requires the 2025-09 Cumulative Update, KB5065789). Like Excel, Power BI connects to data sources through ODBC drivers and dedicated connectors. A native ARM64 Power BI process cannot load an x86_64 ODBC driver — it requires a driver compiled specifically for ARM64.
Together, these two tools represent the most widely deployed Microsoft analytics stack in enterprise environments. Both now run natively on ARM64 Windows, and both depend on ARM64-compatible drivers for external data connectivity.
The AWS connectivity gap on ARM64 Windows
Service | AWS ODBC (Win x86_64) | AWS ODBC (Win ARM64) | CData ODBC / Power BI Connector (Win x86_64) | CData ODBC / Power BI Connector (Win ARM64) |
Amazon Athena | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
Amazon Redshift | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
Amazon S3 | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
Amazon DynamoDB | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
AWS provides ODBC drivers for Amazon Athena and Amazon Redshift on Windows, but only for x86_64. Neither is available for ARM64. For Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB, AWS provides no Windows ODBC drivers at all, regardless of architecture. The table below summarizes the current state:
This means that out of the box, both Excel (Power Query) and Power BI Desktop running natively on ARM64 Windows have no supported path to connect to any of these four AWS services using AWS's own drivers.
CData connectors for AWS on ARM64 Windows
CData provides native ARM64-compatible ODBC drivers, Power BI connectors, and Excel connectors for the full AWS analytics stack:
Amazon Athena — connects to Amazon Athena serverless query service. Executes SQL queries on data stored in S3 using the Presto engine. Supports complex analytical queries.
Amazon Redshift — provides native connectivity to Amazon Redshift data warehouse based on PostgreSQL 8.0.2. Connects directly to Redshift clusters across all AWS regions using the Redshift SQL interface.
Amazon S3 — connects to Amazon S3 object storage, providing a SQL interface to buckets and objects stored across all AWS regions.
Amazon DynamoDB — connects to Amazon DynamoDB NoSQL database service. Supports all DynamoDB table types and indexes. Models DynamoDB tables as relational tables. Handles DynamoDB's schema-less nature with dynamic column detection.
Excel, CSV, XML, JSON files on Amazon S3 — reads Excel, CSV, XML, and JSON files stored on Amazon S3 using standard SQL.
Conclusion
Excel and Power BI are the two flagship Microsoft analytics tools, and both now run natively on ARM64 Windows. Completing an ARM64-native analytics workflow requires that the data connectors they rely on are also ARM64-native — and for AWS data services, that is not something AWS's own drivers currently provide on Windows.
CData fills that gap with ARM64-native ODBC drivers and Power BI connectors across Amazon Athena, Redshift, S3, and DynamoDB — giving organizations running the Microsoft analytics stack on ARM64 Windows a complete, supported path to their AWS data.
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