Snowflake is a comprehensive data storage solution that offers virtually limitless possibilities. It is highly scalable and compliant with the best data security practices. But what makes Snowflake stand out is its architecture and data exchange capabilities. The Snowflake architecture allows for independent scaling of storage and computing, so customers can pay for each separately.
Additionally, its sharing functionality makes it easy to securely exchange data in real time. Even with a smaller community, it's easy to find answers to all general and technical questions related to Snowflake, including information about its SQL language, connectors, administration, user interface, and ecosystem. Unfortunately, Snowflake cannot be implemented on private cloud infrastructures (local or hosted). Snowflake is distributed across all availability zones of the platform on which AWS or Azure runs.
It is designed to operate continuously and tolerate component and network failures with minimal impact on customers. Whether you're a tech-savvy business user or an experienced solution architect, Snowflake has resources for everyone. Snowflake is a server-free offering, meaning that users don't have to select, install, configure, or manage any software or hardware (virtual or physical), except for the number and size of processing clusters. It also allows organizations to share data with any data consumer, whether they are a Snowflake customer or not, through reader accounts that can be created directly from the user interface.
When considering how to use Snowflake's data assets, think about how your data consumers and business applications can take advantage of them. Unlike traditional offerings, Snowflake is a tool designed natively for the public cloud and cannot be run on premises. The CEO of Snowflake wrote that his company is causing disruptions because people are only limited by their imaginations and budgets, not technology. The Snowflake data platform is not based on any existing database technology or “big data” software platform like Hadoop.
In some cases, choosing a more closely coupled cloud ecosystem may be more beneficial than following the snowflake path. Benchmarks show excellent results when it comes to Snowflake's performance. It was created specifically for the cloud and addresses many of the problems found in old hardware-based data stores such as limited scalability, data transformation issues, and delays or failures due to high volumes of queries.
