Co-founder & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
An extremely stable and easy-to-set-up solution with valuable features like cloning and data sharing
Pros and Cons
  • "The cloning functionality has been the most valuable. I have been able to completely copy databases. The data sharing concept is also useful. As compared to, for example, SAP, Snowflake is a lot more open, and it allows a lot more connectivity for other providers than an SAP ecosystem."
  • "It needs a bit more rigor and governance, which is something you don't get with newer tools. This makes it less enterprise scalable. Its governance and structure can be enhanced, which would really be valuable. I would like to see some kind of prebuilt functionality in terms of having almost like a pre-built data warehouse. A functionality for generating automated kind of pieces would be good."

What is our primary use case?

I work for a company that are Snowflake partners and help clients implement solutions using Snowflake.

How has it helped my organization?

Snowflake solves many of the challenges that traditional data warehousing tools have such as a lack of agility, scalability and fine-tuning.

What is most valuable?

The use of micropartitions and metadata means that there is very little management needed and the user can focus purely on actually getting value out of their data. In addition, the cloning feature makes problem resolution and cutover extremely pain-free.

What needs improvement?

Whilst flexibility is one of its key strengths, it would be useful if there could be some better governance built into the product. In addition, functionality out of the box to deal with common data warehousing scenarios (e.g. slowly-changing dimensions etc.) would be great.

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.
771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for about a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is extremely stable.

How are customer service and support?

The support from Snowflake is absolutely great. All kinds of content and things are available to support yourself as well as to be able to talk through issues and have their engineers take a look at the problems. They are very responsive.

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

We use Snowflake alongside other data warehousing tools. Ultimately it depends on what the client wants to implement and their existing architecture as to what would be the best choice.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward.

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

Snowflake has a very efficient pricing mechanism where you only pay for what you use by the second making it very easy to control costs.

What other advice do I have?

The best advice I would give is to push for a POC. Pick a couple of use cases where you think you could quickly get value and just see how quickly you can get it implemented. One of the key features of Snowflake is that you can get it up and running straight away. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Big Data & Cloud Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A cloud solution with many useful features and data science capability
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a cloud solution with many useful features. It has the data science capability. It can transform data and prepare data for a data science project with scalability."
  • "We would like to be able to do modeling with Snowflake. It should support statistical modeling."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for optimizing costs and using financial data.

What is most valuable?

It is a cloud solution with many useful features. It has the data science capability. It can transform data and prepare data for a data science project with scalability.

What needs improvement?

We would like to be able to do modeling with Snowflake. It should support statistical modeling.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than a year.

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 very scalable. We currently have more than 50 users. We can increase its usage.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted their support.

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

I used Cloudera One about two years ago.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy. It is a SaaS solution, so there is no installation. Therefore, you don't need the infrastructure team, but you need a few data analysts.

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

It is pay-as-you-go. Its cost is in the medium range.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

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.
771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.
ML Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Well-distributed with different data engines, great stability and scalability, and easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very well-distributed system. It has different data engines for different applications. Many applications can use different computational engines at the same time. In terms of data processing, the feeling was similar to working with a relational database but in a scalable way."
  • "The scheduling system can definitely be better because we had to use external airflow for that. There should be orchestration for the scheduling system. Snowflake currently does not support machine learning, so it is just storage. They also need some alternatives for SQL Query. There should also be support for Spark in different languages such as Python."

What is our primary use case?

It was used in my previous company for a massive data warehouse. It was used for events and actions from other data sources. We had its latest version.

What is most valuable?

It is a very well-distributed system. It has different data engines for different applications. Many applications can use different computational engines at the same time. In terms of data processing, the feeling was similar to working with a relational database but in a scalable way.

What needs improvement?

The scheduling system can definitely be better because we had to use external airflow for that. There should be orchestration for the scheduling system. Snowflake currently does not support machine learning, so it is just storage. 

They also need some alternatives for SQL Query. There should also be support for Spark in different languages such as Python.

For how long have I used the solution?

I worked on it a lot in the past 12 months in my previous company.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is absolutely great. There are no problems with its stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. There are no problems with the scalability of this solution. There were 50 or 60 users using it at the same time.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don't have much experience with their technical support. When we asked them some technical questions related to Spark integration, they were quite supportive. Their support was fine.

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

I have used BigQuery on Google Cloud Platform and Spark on an internal cloud.

How was the initial setup?

It was quite straightforward. There is no problem with that. However, managing the database and roles and access is complicated. Its deployment didn't take a long time.

What other advice do I have?

I would 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
it_user865563 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at Celebal Technologies
Real User
Easy to scale, a simple initial setup, and good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward. You just need to follow the documentation."
  • "The solution could improve the user interface and add functionality to the system."

How has it helped my organization?

We mainly used SQL scripts and provided a solution for different owners who want to query a database but have several tables. Typically, it is not an easy task to read several tables, so we provided our client with a very crisp data model where they can get results in a very quick manner. We implemented distribution as well as weekly partitioning. 

What is most valuable?

The relational piece and how one dimension relates to another just by using a key is the solution's most valuable aspect. We are managing everything by using simple relations. It's all about the relationships between dimensions.

What needs improvement?

Right now, we need to write code, but if they could create a version of Snowflake that was more drag and drop for those managers that don't know how to code, it would be great for our business.

The solution could improve the user interface and add functionality to the system.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. We bring in incremental loads into Snowflake. There are pipelines that daily seed data from Oracle to a data warehouse. It's a prebuilt code and it allows for great stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very easy to scale because Azure cloud's own data warehouse gives us that capabilities to scale up or down at any time we want. There are a great number of users on the solution, but it differs from client to client. One client, for example, has about 30,000 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've never been in touch with technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. You just need to follow the documentation.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves. I've handled two or three projects previously, so I'm comfortable with the solution. We don't need assistance because we handle the consulting part.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is deployed on the cloud using Azure, where there's a data warehouse. We primarily use SQL scripts.

For those considering implementing, I'd advise that they understand the business very deeply first. Not every business would have a demand for Snowflake, so it's not for everyone. It's important to understand the requirements and then, if it makes sense, to implement Snowflake.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. I'd rate it higher if it had a better user interface.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Enterprise BDM and Solutions Speacialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Scalable, easy to understand, and has reasonable pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The pricing is reasonable and matches the rest of the market."
  • "The pricing of the solution should be much easier to calculate or find by yourself."

What is our primary use case?

The solution provides services to our customers.

What is most valuable?

The solution is very easy to understand. It's a simple solution. It's not complicated.

The product does a lot of wonderful stuff that a lot of these companies want to do without too much effort.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The pricing is reasonable and matches the rest of the market.

The solution is quite stable.

Our clients have not had any trouble scaling.

What needs improvement?

The pricing of the solution should be much easier to calculate or find by yourself.

Clients want to get a rough idea as to how much it's going to cost for year one, year two, year three, et cetera. There is a calculator that Snowflake gives you, however, more often than not, you have to go to Snowflake to get those numbers. You can't do it yourself. To simplify things, it could be easier if they made it maybe easier to understand the cost and what the outgoing cost for a customer would be.

In the future, if they added AI capabilities, that would be ideal.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about a year. It hasn't been that long. The company that I work for, on the other hand, has likely used it for three or four years or so.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is very good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't heard of clients having issues with scalability. It can expand well. A company that needs to grow it out can do so without any trouble.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not too complex. It is pretty straightforward. A company shouldn't have too much trouble implementing the solution.

What about the implementation team?

We deploy such solutions for our clients if they require it.

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

We are the first global premier partner. We have the highest level of Snowflake partnership

The licensing is a bit tricky as it's hard to calculate pricing ahead of time.

That said, most customers I have dealt with have no issues at all with the pricing. They think it's reasonable. Obviously, everybody, every single customer, wants to receive a price. That goes without saying. However, if you ask me if it's a fair price for the market, the answer is yes.

What other advice do I have?

We don't recommend a cloud typically. We leave it to the customer. If the customer has AWS, and then we sell Snowflake on AWS. If the customer has Google, we sell Snowflake on Google or Azure, or if they have Azure, we sell Azure. They may even have a private cloud. We don't force the customer to buy a particular cloud. We go with the customer's preference from their cloud services because Snowflake works on all three clouds.

In general, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. It does what it says it will, and I have yet to hear of customers complaining about its capabilities.

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
it_user1174809 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Consultant
A flexible solution with good clustering, and the pay-per-use feature is useful
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the clustering, LS50, being able to change the size, the pay per use feature, the flexibility with many different sources and analytic applications."
  • "Support needs improvement, as it can take several days before you get some initial support."

What is our primary use case?

We are an IT Analytic Consulting company and we work with many different products. We have Snowflake and a Snowflake account mainly for education purposes and our internal training.

We connected it to different sources, mainly internal sources. Most of them are on-premises and some are on the cloud.

The deployment model is public.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are: 

The multi-clustering: being able to access stored data without contention.

Virtual Warehouse (VW) sizing: Change the size of your VW on demand. 

Zero copy clone: Easy to create development and test environments.

What needs improvement?

I would like to have a tool where you can easily see the price because they need clarity of pricing.

Support needs improvement, as it can take several days before you get some initial support.

Integration could be the key to provide an optimal solution.

In the near future, I would like to see a built-in basic analytics solution that can be embedded for testing purposes, so you can see data not only in tables but also in a graphical way in order to better prepare data for analytics.

Embedded analytics would be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The scenarios that we are using are not complex. For what we are using it's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

With a different cloud that warehouses are the standard for now but the scalability is pretty straightforward.

How are customer service and technical support?

In terms of support, it can take some time as there are not many people to provide support. Compared to other more stable providers it's a bit slower.

You have to wait several days to get support.

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

Snowflake is not the only solution we are working with but it is the only solution that we are heavily focusing on and investing our efforts into the knowledge and the training.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup can be complex at the beginning but once you get into it, it can be straightforward.

When you come from an on-premises solution and you have to change or shift to the cloud, it works very differently. Once you know the differences then it is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did not implement this solution through a vendor, we did it ourselves.

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

Pricing can be confusing for customers. For example, if a customer is asking for an estimate of the price, it's hard to tell because it is not easy to measure.

Improvement on the pricing and how it is presented is needed.

What other advice do I have?

I would suggest being careful with selecting resources. Each customer case can be completely different and each can require different resources.

It's not only the database itself but also how you integrate it with the analytics and the resources. The estimation of the resources is something that you have to pay a lot of attention to when selecting the resources because sometimes you will need EPL or ELT integration, which requires a tool, as does analytics.

For an end to end solution, you have to include other products.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
NitinKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
NitinKumarDirector of Enginnering at Sigmoid
Real User

Yeah, the pricing is something which I too felt can be more open and explicit for the customers.

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.