In Part 1 of this series, we explored why Snowflake is becoming the go-to choice for organizations seeking a scalable, secure, and cost-efficient data platform. We ventured into Snowflake’s cloud-native architecture, scalability, user-friendly interface, and the cost benefits it offers businesses striving to stay competitive.
There is more to Snowflake’s appeal than just its technical strengths. In this second part, we’ll take a closer look at some of the other critical factors that make Snowflake a comprehensive solution for modern data management. We’ll examine its global reach, robust integration capabilities, support for collaboration, and the community support aspect that helps organizations maximize the value of their data.
Whether you’re looking to offer more resilience with a multi-region strategy, streamline operations with BI or ETL/ELT tools, or foster collaboration within your teams, Snowflake offers the flexibility and support to meet these needs.
Global Reach and Availability
Multi-Cloud Support
Snowflake is available on major cloud providers like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure, and Google Cloud. It offers flexibility in choosing a preferred cloud platform so your organization will not need to worry about vendor lock. Companies can choose or switch between cloud providers based on evolving needs, cost considerations, or specific regional capabilities, without having to re-architect the entire data platform.
Data Replication Across Regions
Organizations can replicate data across multiple regions for disaster recovery and high availability. By distributing data and workloads across multiple regions or cloud providers, businesses can remain operational even if one provider experiences an outage or disruption.
The global reach and availability of Snowflake offers flexibility, resilience, and business alignment for organizations looking to modernize their data strategy.
Integration Capabilities
Integration with BI Tools
Snowflake integrates easily with a wide array of business intelligence and analytics tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
Different teams within an organization often have varying needs when it comes to data analysis. For instance, marketing teams might use Tableau for data visualization, while finance teams might rely on Power BI for financial reporting. Snowflake’s range of compatibility ensures that each team can use their preferred tools without any barriers.
If you have a similar scenario within your organization but you’re dealing with data trust issues, I urge you to look into Master Data Management and Trusted Zone data architecture, start here.
Support for Third-Party ETL/ELT Tools
Snowflake’s compatibility with popular ETL/ELT tools like Informatica, Talend, Matillion, Fivetran, Stitch, Airflow, dbt, etc. simplifies data ingestion and transformation processes.
The wide range of support for third-party tools gives organizations the ability to choose where they would like to focus data engineering efforts. Some may prefer a no-code/code-optional solution like Matillion which makes complex tasks accessible to the less technical user (Figure 1), while others might opt for the free, open-source, script-based approach with dbt.
Figure 1. Matillion Data Productivity Cloud (DPC) low-code solution example, loading tables from Azure Blob to Snowflake
Even organizations with strong data engineering teams have reason to integrate with ETL tools. The reduction in manual ETL coding and data cleansing frees up data engineers to focus on data strategies and pipeline optimization.
Snowflake’s integration support, for BI and ETL tools alike accommodates unique business preferences and needs. Pairing Snowflake’s integration capabilities with its data warehousing abilities empowers more employees to engage with data, fostering a data-driven culture across the organization.
Data Sharing and Collaboration
Secure Data Sharing
Snowflake allows organizations to share live data securely with partners, customers, and vendors without the need for complex data transfers.
Retailers could share inventory data with suppliers, financial institutions could share market data with clients, healthcare organizations could share research data with partners, and multinational corporations could share performance metrics across regions.
Snowflake’s secure data sharing capabilities eliminate the need for duplicating or transferring data, which can often lead to discrepancies. Additionally, with data sharing, data consumers no longer need to dedicate resources to extract, transform, and securely transmit data, reducing the high-level operational overhead.
Data Marketplace
The Data Marketplace takes data sharing to the next level, providing a platform for organizations to access and monetize data as an asset, facilitating data collaboration across industries.
Innovation and Community Support
Continuous Updates and Features
Snowflake regularly updates its platform with new features and enhancements, ensuring organizations have access to the latest advancements in data technology.
I work with a variety of data and software tools daily, with my stack shifting based on the specific project or client I’m focusing on. I’m consistently impressed by the quality of Snowflake’s documentation. If your just getting started with Snowflake, I’d recommend working through the comprehensive User Guides. If you’re looking for a quick how-to, such as how to create a table with Snowflake SQL, scroll to the bottom to see common examples of the functionality (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Pro tip – scroll to the bottom of Snowflake documentation for common examples
Vibrant Community and Ecosystem
It’s always good practice to explore community support and recency of updates, bug fixes, etc. before committing to a software tool. A large and active community often indicates that the software is reliable and widely adopted. Community contributions suggest that the software has proven its value to others and is likely to be a stable and well-supported tool.
Snowflake boasts a strong community and ecosystem of partners, providing extensive resources and support for users. I often find myself leveraging Snowflake’s community for continuous learning. Engaging with the community allows me to stay updated on the latest features, updates, and industry trends. It also offers opportunities to learn new techniques, discover innovative use cases, and get inspiration for projects that I am working on or dream of working on in the future.
Conclusion
Snowflake’s reach, integration capabilities, collaboration features, and comprehensive support further solidify its position as a leading data platform for modern businesses.
If your organization is ready to enhance its data management with a platform that offers unparalleled flexibility, support, and collaboration opportunities, Snowflake is an excellent choice. Our team at Datalere is here to help you navigate this journey. We provide expert consulting services to design and implement custom data solutions that align with your business goals.
