Padmanesh NC - PeerSpot reviewer
Big Data Solution Architect - Spatial Data Specialist at SCIERA, INC
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
The distributed architecture of Snowflake has the capacity to process huge datasets faster and allows us to scale up and down according to our needs
Pros and Cons
  • "The distributed architecture of Snowflake has the capacity to process huge datasets faster and allows us to scale up and down according to our needs."
  • "Snowflake has to improve their spatial parts since it doesn't have much in terms of geo-spatial queries."

How has it helped my organization?

We were using MySQL and MongoDB for our regular operations but when we grew, we were forced to handle a huge number of datasets. We could have petabytes of data in and out on a regular basis. We struggled a lot to complete the operations in a timely manner. With Amazon Redshift, we gained a lot in terms of timing, as well as project completion. Even-through we are happy with Redshift, in terms of pricing and availability of nodes, I am more comfortable with Snowflake. Some of the scoring mechanism really works well in the distributed architecture of Snowflake.

What is most valuable?

  • Scalability. This solution has the ability to load a huge number of datasets (I have experience with petabytes of data) and process them. Storage is not limited, and we can increase what we want.
  • Performance. The distributed architecture of Snowflake has the capacity to process huge datasets faster and allows us to scale up and down according to our needs.
  • Flexibility. This feature is helpful for the user to increase the node size and config depending on their need. There is no need to wait for hardware to be in place whenever we increase the dataset. Snowflake provides the option to increase the node or cluster size whenever required.
  • Multi-formatted accessibility. The Snowflake engine has the capability to read the following file formats: CSV, DELIMITER, FIXEDWIDTH, AVRO, JSON, BZIP2, GZIP, LZOP. The user can choose which format is best for their requirements.
  • Configuration. Even though its running in the AWS platform, it beats their platform product. I feel more flexible with this solution than I do with Redshift.
  • Snowpipe. Snowpipe is a better system to feed stream data to the Snowflake database.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake has to improve their spatial components since it doesn't have much in terms of geo-spatial queries.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Buyer's Guide
Snowflake
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Snowflake. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No

How are customer service and support?

It's really good. I am happy with the product and the service.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

With Amazon Redshift, we gained a lot in terms of timing as well as project completion. Even through we are happy with Redshift, in terms of pricing and availability of nodes, I am more comfortable with Snowflake.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Snowflake is very simple and straightforward. We do not need to read or understand any of the technical documentation. It is a plug-and-play service or platform.

What about the implementation team?

I have implemented this solution through an in-house team.

What was our ROI?

I can't directly convey ROI because we are not using only Snowflake. We are using multiple products to increase our revenue and decrease time consumption. This makes it difficult to calculate ROI.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have experience working in Hadoop & Redshift as well. When I compare the three (Snowflake, Hadoop, and Redshift), Snowflake is more user-friendly in terms of configuration and maintenance.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Enterprise architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Ease to use, highly secure, and flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the solution's most valuable features to be storage, flexibility, ease of use, and security."
  • "There is a need for improvements in the documentation, this would allow more people to switch over to this solution."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for data warehouses and data modeling.

What is most valuable?

I have found the solution's most valuable features to be storage, flexibility, ease of use, and security.

What needs improvement?

There is a need for improvements in the documentation, this would allow more people to switch over to this solution. I would like to see in the future a wizard for data modelization automation.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found the solution to be scalable. We have a few employees working on this solution in my organization.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is a SaaS, it can be installed and managed by your provider. The installation setup is not difficult in this case. However, the configuration took us a couple of days.

What about the implementation team?

We did the configuration of the solution ourselves. You need a data engineer and modeler for the movement of information into the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a licensing for this solution and we purchased an enterprise license. Overall the solution is cost-effective.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate some other solutions previously, such as Snap Analytics. All the different solution have their pros and cons. However, many are moving to this solution because it is in the cloud.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others and we are going to keep using the solution in the future.

I rate Snowflake an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Snowflake
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Snowflake. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Lead Data Analyst at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feature-wise complete, good speed and performance, and easy to configure
Pros and Cons
  • "Its speed and performance were the most valuable. Easy configuration of Snowflake in any cloud was also a benefit."
  • "Its pricing or affordability is one of the big challenges. Pricing was the only thing that we didn't like about Snowflake. In terms of technical features, it is a complete solution."

What is our primary use case?

It was only a workshop with training to know the tool. We were just testing the technology, and it was just a demo of the tool. We wanted is to connect switches with IoT and use Snowflake as an engine to process all the big data. It was on top of AWS, but our infrastructure is on top of the Google Cloud Platform.

The intention was to see if we can process on the front-end that we have. We have a console that processes a big amount of data. Instead of using BigQuery, we used Snowflake to see if it is cheaper than using BigQuery, but Snowflake wasn't cost-effective. In the end, we didn't go for this solution. We just saw how it can be implemented, but we never bought anything.

How has it helped my organization?

We don't have a metric, but I would say that the processing time was a key benefit and value-add. It provided on-time processing.

What is most valuable?

Its speed and performance were the most valuable. Easy configuration of Snowflake in any cloud was also a benefit.

What needs improvement?

Its pricing or affordability is one of the big challenges. Pricing was the only thing that we didn't like about Snowflake. In terms of technical features, it is a complete solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is great. We have data processing of one terabyte per month.

How was the initial setup?

It was not complex. Our implementation strategy was to put Snowflake on top of Google Cloud solutions instead of BigQuery, but BigQuery was better in price. So, BigQuery won in this case instead of Snowflake.

What about the implementation team?

We got the guidance directly from Snowflake. They have a technical expert for Latin America.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We used Snowflake to see if it is cheaper than using BigQuery. It was just to maintain the cost or the KPI regarding the cost of connectivity by users. Snowflake wasn't cheaper than BigQuery, and its affordability was the main issue. 

What other advice do I have?

My advice is to consider Snowflake when you have more customers. I wouldn't consider Snowflake until I have sufficient customers. 

Whether we will consider Snowflake in the future depends on how BigQuery behaves. If the cost of BigQuery starts increasing and becomes similar to Snowflake, we're going to switch. If not, we're going to remain with BigQuery. 

We might also consider other similar solutions, such as Yellowbrick, or switch to another cloud solution, such as Azure or AWS, depending on the price. Right now, we are paying about $2,000 per month. Our goal is to have the total cost of everything to be around $3,000 per month. It is more or less our goal for KPI kind of thing.

I would rate Snowflake an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chief Data Architect - Europe at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Data sharing and data marketplace aspects are amazing, but it should support integration with some of the Azure and AWS native services
Pros and Cons
  • "We find the data sharing and data marketplace aspects of Snowflake absolutely amazing."
  • "There is a scope for improvement. They don't currently support integration with some of the Azure and AWS native services. It would be good if they can enhance their product to integrate with these services."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it as a data lake. We are using it as a data warehouse and a data mart. It is basically the entire BI and analytics platform.

I am using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

We find the data sharing and data marketplace aspects of Snowflake absolutely amazing.

What needs improvement?

There is a scope for improvement. They don't currently support integration with some of the Azure and AWS native services. It would be good if they can enhance their product to integrate with these services.

It would also be great if it can support stored procedures.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with it for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You need to be aware of the bloating costs. It is easy to use, but if you don't use it wisely, then your monthly bill can bloat a lot. You need to be a bit aware of its consumption cost.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a seven out of 10.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
Technology & Innovation at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Real User
Reasonably-priced, scalable, and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "The technical support is pretty good, particularly if you are a more technical user."
  • "Every product has room for improvement, although in this case, it needs some broadening of the functionality."

What is our primary use case?

We are a management consulting firm and do not use this product for ourselves. Rather, it is a service for our clients.

What is most valuable?

The overall package is quite nice, and there is not one specific feature that I have found more valuable than the others.

The vendor is quite willing to implement requests for development, in particular for larger clients. It is a nice company to work with.

What needs improvement?

Every product has room for improvement, although in this case, it needs some broadening of the functionality. They could become more complete.

Including more AI functionality would be nice. Microsoft does have more in this regard, although that also has to do with the size of the company.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Snowflake for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Snowflake is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is definitely a scalable solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is pretty good, particularly if you are a more technical user. The people they have are quite technical, so compared to a lot of other companies where you first get somebody on the phone who has never seen the product, but he or she just works at the center and has to answer the first calls, if you connect with Snowflake, you immediately get somebody who is actually at the proper level.

It also means that if you have less experienced users, it's not that they find it difficult, but then they may get some questions to resolve the issue, which they don't really know the answer to. Sometimes, users may find themselves a bit lost because they don't know how to answer those questions. However, it's not in a negative way. It's more like you get a proper engineer to respond to your issues with Snowflake.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Snowflake is quite reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

Personally, if I have the choice, I would rather recommend Snowflake to my clients over a product from Microsoft, for example. They have some overlapping functionality, but they also have some separate stuff. Snowflake does not have the size to develop at that pace but personally, I find them a more sympathetic company than Microsoft.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Excellent data warehousing, quick to scale, and knowledgable technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "From a data warehouse perspective, it's an excellent all-round solution. It's very complete."
  • "The user interface continues to be an issue, especially when we need to get data out of Snowflake. It's very easy to get data in, but it's not too easy to get it out or extract it."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for data. We like that there are so many different formats and many structures for analysis.

What is most valuable?

The architecture we'll be using due to being on the cloud will assure we have less to do. There will be no indexing, for example. Everything's managed by the servers. That way, we can focus on the data warehouse and on the data.

From a data warehouse perspective, it's an excellent all-round solution. It's very complete.

What needs improvement?

The user interface continues to be an issue, especially when we need to get data out of Snowflake. It's very easy to get data in, but it's not too easy to get it out or extract it.

It would be nice to have some built-in solutions that would solve. for example, how to delete data from a customer when they request it.

There needs to be stronger data protection.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for just a bit less than a year at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Our clients have been very impressed with the solution's overall stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is incredible. It's the best I've ever seen. Organizations can scale easily. I can scale up four times faster as well. Something that usually takes 60 minutes can be done in 15 or 20 minutes. It's faster and I save costs because I only pay for the time. Even though I'm paying "more" I end up saving money with this time based costing.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've only contacted technical support a handful of times. I have, however, found them to be very savvy product-wise and very helpful. Their technical support staff are all experts. They know the product extremely well.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward. I wouldn't describe it as complex.

How long it takes to deploy depends on your knowledge and your background. It's difficult to judge. I've been working for 20 years now with data warehouses. For me, it was very easy because of my extensive background. However, it depends on what someone knows, and their technical background. It can be difficult for others who maybe don't have as much knowledge or first-hand experience with warehouses.

What about the implementation team?

We're partners with Snowflake. We support our customers and can help them implement it as necessary.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution has an excellent pricing strategy. The costs are open and transparent. If you don't use it, you don't pay for it. It's that simple.

What other advice do I have?

We're partners with Snowflake.

The difference between Snowflake, and, for example, Azure, is that there is real separation between the computer and storage. Snowflake is the only one that's really separate and it's much simpler to scale or shift data. It makes everything much easier.

One of the best options on the market right now is to have a cloud-only setup. Not everyone is using the cloud, but everyone will catch up.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If the user interface was better and they had a few more features and did some useability tweaks it would be perfect. Also, it's hard to get the data out of Snowflake, and that's a real issue design-wise.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Data & Analytics Practitioner at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Could use better integration, but very stable with an easy initial setup
Pros and Cons
  • "They separate compute and storage. You can scale storage independently of the computer, or you can scale computing independently of storage. If you need to buy more computer parts you can add new virtual warehouses in Snowflake. Similarly, if you need more storage, you take more storage. It's most scalable in the database essentially; typically you don't have this scalability independence on-premises."
  • "The solution should offer an on-premises version also. We have some requirements where we would prefer to use it as a template."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for data warehousing.

What is most valuable?

The entire managed service operations for the solution is great. Snowflake does everything for us. Whatever version they have, they implement the latest for us; we don't have to worry about any versions, any upgrades, anything else because they handle it.

What needs improvement?

The solution should offer an on-premises version also. We have some requirements where we would prefer to use it as a template. 

The integration capabilities could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been very stable for us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not tested scalability, but the solution claims that it's scalable. It's on the cloud, so I imagine you could scale rather easily if you needed to. 

They separate compute and storage. You can scale storage independently of the computer, or you can scale computing independently of storage. If you need to buy more computer parts you can add new virtual warehouses in Snowflake. Similarly, if you need more storage, you take more storage. It's most scalable in the database essentially; typically you don't have this scalability independence on-premises. 

We have about 40 people using the solution. They're mostly business users.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. Occasionally, they take a bit of time to resolve issues, but other than that they are okay. We're mostly satisfied with them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We're system integrators, so we use different solutions including SQL Server Data Warehouse and Greenplum as well as Snowflake at the moment.

I've used many data warehouse solutions, including Hadoop, and Oracle SQL Server Data warehouses. I switched from those to Snowflake because Snowflake is on the cloud and gives you separate computing and storage scalability, which Hadoop is unable to offer.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. There's no deployment; it's just your code solution that needs to get up and running. You have a deal with Snowflake in terms of what environment you want, and when you want to use it, and they'll set it up within a day for you.

What about the implementation team?

Snowflake helped us with the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

We are system integrators, so for all our customers, we offer different solutions.

We only use the cloud deployment model. Snowflake doesn't offer on-premises deployments.

Snowflake on cloud is the best right now. There are only a few other options. Redshift is not scalable. With SQL Data Warehouse the concurrency is an issue, as well as scalability. Also, it does not have all the features that you see in an on-premises SQL Server.

Snowflake a good database. I'd recommend the solution to others.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. We are still new to the solution. There are a few things we still have to explore before we would give it 10. Typically, I come from a Hadoop background, so compared to Hadoop I think everything looks good before the data warehouse side. We're quite pleased with Snowflake and moving from Hadoop into Snowflake has been a very good transformation.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Data & Analytics Practitioner (BIDW, Big Data) at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Internally optimizes well, scales automatically, and offers great performance features
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the fact that we don't need a DBA. It automatically scales stuff."
  • "It's not that flexible when compared to Oracle."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the Matillion as the ETL tool and Snowflake has storage and there is no data warehouse component for storage.

What is most valuable?

I like the fact that we don't need a DBA. It automatically scales stuff.

Snowflake has better performance features; it automatically knows the difference between the data volume. It adjusts itself.

The performance is great. It internally optimizes well.

The product is stable.

The solution is scalable.

What needs improvement?

There are certain special features that are not available. For example, in Oracle, we have an SQL field. We have functions, procedures, packages, et cetera, which you can create similarly in Snowflake. However, it's not that flexible when compared to Oracle.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution in the last year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable and the performance is excellent. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's extremely reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Snowflake scales well. If a company needs to expand, it can do so.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use Matillion. I find Snowflake a bit better.

What other advice do I have?

We're partners.

While I can't speak to the version number we are using, we're always on the latest version of the solution.

Snowflake is a good product. It is quite robust and scalable. However, a few of the functions are a little complex in Snowflake. 

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.