Sanjay Bheemasenarao - PeerSpot reviewer
Director - Data Engineering expert at Sankir Technologies
Real User
Amazingly simple documentation, easy setup, and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very easy-to-use solution. It is user-friendly, and its setup time is very less."
  • "They have a new console, but I couldn't figure out anything in the new console. So, if I shift to the old console, I can figure out where to create the database schema and other things, but I have no idea where to go in the new console. That's one thing they can improve. I don't know why they created a new console to confuse. The old, classic console is much better."

What is our primary use case?

I use this solution to create a proof of concept. I also create training for companies on Snowflake.

What is most valuable?

It is a very easy-to-use solution. It is user-friendly, and its setup time is very less.

What needs improvement?

They have a new console, but I couldn't figure out anything in the new console. So, if I shift to the old console, I can figure out where to create the database schema and other things, but I have no idea where to go in the new console. That's one thing they can improve. I don't know why they created a new console to confuse. The old, classic console is much better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using Snowflake three months ago. 

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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.

How are customer service and support?

It is so easy that I didn't have to look for technical support. Its documentation is amazingly simple.

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

I also use Databricks for proof of concept and training. I have used Databricks much longer than Snowflake. Both have their own pros and cons.

In terms of ease of use, UI, and setup time, Snowflake is good. I would rate Snowflake a nine out of 10 from these aspects. In terms of workload, Databricks has higher points. The underlying infrastructure is faster for Databricks, which is not the case with Snowflake. Snowflake is a cloud database. So, in terms of processing power, Databricks has an advantage over Snowflake. Databricks is more suitable for larger workloads, whereas, for a regular or typical data warehouse that you want to run on the cloud, Snowflake is more suitable. 

How was the initial setup?

Its setup was easy. You can create a connection and be up and running within half an hour.

What about the implementation team?

I set it up myself.

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

I have not been billed yet, but it should be less. I'm still running the trial version, but it seems to be less than Databricks.

What other advice do I have?

You must try it out. It is a wonderful product. I would also recommend trying out other products, such as Yellowbrick, and doing a comparison. Redshift has also come up with some serverless options. BigQuery is also there. BigQuery is as easy as Snowflake. So, my recommendation or advice is to try out these things and then pick the one that suits you. I don't have any bias towards any of the products. I have an impartial opinion about all the cloud data warehousing products.

I would rate it a nine out of 10.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Iqbal Hossain Raju - PeerSpot reviewer
Junior Software Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Stable product with good analytics features
Pros and Cons
  • "The product's most important feature is unloading data to S3."
  • "The product's performance could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Snowflake is good for analytical purposes when you have a lot of historical or sales data that you need to release and use for different types of analysis, such as tracking sales and measuring the performance of your sales team and product.

What is most valuable?

The product's most important feature is unloading data to S3. It provides a single syntax query to analyze data directly from a database to an S3 bucket.

What needs improvement?

The product's performance could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for a couple of months. We are using the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did not need to scale our Snowflake environment beyond what we needed. We have a fixed amount of traffic from a fixed number of clients. We know the load we need to handle, and based on that, our subscription is made.

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

Snowflake is cost-effective. The pricing is better than Firebolt. Firebolt is better when there is idle time. If we run Snowflake all the time, the cost will be higher.

What other advice do I have?

We are working on two solutions for Snowflake, one for the cloud and one for on-premises. It has good documentation. If someone goes through it, they will quickly understand how it works. However, Firebolt's documentation is more comprehensive. If I need faster results, I'll prefer the Firebolt; if I need performance, I'll use Snowflake.

Overall, I rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Snowflake
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Snowflake. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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Data Engineer at Natwest
Real User
Top 20
Good scalability and has a simple query process
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's computing time is less."
  • "Its stability could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to build the pipelines in stream sets, including data source, data warehouse, and destination endpoints.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable features are storage, run time, scalability, and minimum query time compared to other vendors.

What needs improvement?

The solution's stability needs improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven or eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Recently, I encountered an issue with the solution's data warehouse. The resource monitor had exceeded its quota. I rate its stability as an eight.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution's scalability as a nine.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We use Hive and Hadoop as well. Snowflake is more stable and scalable.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is more straightforward to use than the other IDBMS tools. It has a simple query process. Its computing time is less as well. One can easily have access to it. I rate it as a nine.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Solution Architect at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Stable and scalable, enables us to share the data, and addresses the challenges of traditional data warehouses
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to share the data and the ability to scale up and down easily are the most valuable features. The concept of data sharing and data plumbing made it very easy to provide and share data. The ability to refresh your Dev or QA just by doing a clone is also valuable. It has the dynamic scale up and scale down feature. Development and deployment are much easier as compared to other platforms where you have to go through a lot of stuff. With a tool like DBT, you can do modeling and transformation within a single tool and deploy to Snowflake. It provides continuous deployment and continuous integration abilities. There is a separation of storage and compute, so you only get charged for your usage. You only pay for what you use. When we share the data downstream with business partners, we can specifically create compute for them, and we can charge back the business."
  • "They need to incorporate some basic OLAP capabilities in the backend or at the database level. Currently, it is purely a database. They call it purely a data warehouse for the cloud. Currently, just like any database, we have to calculate all the KPIs in the front-end tools. The same KPIs again need to be calculated in Snowflake. It would be very helpful if they can include some OLAP features. This will bring efficiency because we will be able to create the KPIs within Snowflake itself and then publish them to multiple front-end tools. We won't have to recreate the same in each project. There should be the ability to automate raised queries, which is currently not possible. There should also be something for Exception Aggregation and things like that."

What is our primary use case?

We are completely migrating to Snowflake, and we are in transition. It is primarily to combine all our data repositories into a single place. We have SAP BW and SAP HANA, and some of our business units have their own databases. We chose Snowflake to consolidate all of our data into a single place and then build enterprise data. We are then going to provide the data for our businesses in shared databases, on which they would do reporting. They will also have the ability to bring in their own data, which is currently not possible. They will also be able to do advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI in Snowflake, which is not fully possible on our current platforms. It will be used for all the operational reporting, such as sales, supply chain, appraising, and merchandising. We just started to do reporting related to sales and supply chain inventory.

We have its latest version. It is currently deployed on Amazon AWS, but we are moving to Google.

How has it helped my organization?

There are so many features that Snowflake offers to address the challenges that people have been facing in the traditional data warehouses for a long time. It allows us to have a single repository for all the data. Currently, we have data repositories all over the place, and we want to bring everyone onto one platform so that it can be utilized across the organization. Currently, we need database administrators and SAP administrators to manage multiple databases and platforms. With Snowflake, we don't need any admin, and there is zero maintenance. All we need is a platform architect who can just manage the Snowflake platform to create databases and security roles, and then you can share the data. By integrating everything into a single Snowflake platform, we have lowered the total cost of ownership quite a bit.

What is most valuable?

The ability to share the data and the ability to scale up and down easily are the most valuable features. The concept of data sharing and data plumbing made it very easy to provide and share data. The ability to refresh your Dev or QA just by doing a clone is also valuable. It has the dynamic scale up and scale down feature. 

Development and deployment are much easier as compared to other platforms where you have to go through a lot of stuff. With a tool like DBT, you can do modeling and transformation within a single tool and deploy to Snowflake. It provides continuous deployment and continuous integration abilities.

There is a separation of storage and compute, so you only get charged for your usage. You only pay for what you use. When we share the data downstream with business partners, we can specifically create compute for them, and we can charge back the business.

What needs improvement?

They need to incorporate some basic OLAP capabilities in the backend or at the database level. Currently, it is purely a database. They call it purely a data warehouse for the cloud. Currently, just like any database, we have to calculate all the KPIs in the front-end tools. The same KPIs again need to be calculated in Snowflake. It would be very helpful if they can include some OLAP features. This will bring efficiency because we will be able to create the KPIs within Snowflake itself and then publish them to multiple front-end tools. We won't have to recreate the same in each project. 

There should be the ability to automate raised queries, which is currently not possible. There should also be something for Exception Aggregation and things like that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is all cloud. It is really stable. We haven't seen any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can scale up or down based on our needs. We don't have tons and tons of data, but based on the quality feedback from our vendors, it can handle large volumes and has the competency. With the dynamic scale-up feature, we are confident that it is going to meet all our requirements.

Currently, our number of users is very limited because we have just started the migration. We don't have many users on the platform. All of our focus is on Snowflake because we're moving to Snowflake, and its usage will increase in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

I do not directly interact with the support, but I believe our platform architect reached out, and he got a response.

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

We had SAP BW and SAP HANA as our main data platforms. We are slowly decommissioning SAP BW and SAP HANA and completely migrating to Snowflake. We wanted to have a single repository for all the data. The cost was also a factor.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward. To expose the data in the cloud, we had to go through our info security and legal, so that's the part that took time. After that is done, the process for setting up the platform, getting signed up with the initial free credits, and signing up the licensing for the credits was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We are working with a system integrator or vendor for this project. Our strategy is to work with an experienced vendor for the first project, and after that, we would be able to drive things forward.

Our experience with them is good. They're building the architecture of Snowflake. They have experience, and we have our own thoughts. We are working together and making sure that the architecture is for the long-term and not just for one project. Whenever we see that their focus is limited to the project, we are asking them questions to make sure that they are making the right decision.

In terms of maintenance, it doesn't require any maintenance, but you do require architects. We have three architects. One architect is responsible for the platform and takes care of creating security rules, grants, and users. We also have an integration architect who is responsible for data acquisition, ETL, and stuff like that. We have a data architect who is responsible for the overall data architecture in terms of what layers we need to establish and how do we model the data and publish that for consumption.

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

There is a separation of storage and compute, so you only pay for what you use. 

What other advice do I have?

The key part is skill set because Snowflake is all SQL-driven data warehousing. Internally, we have some SAP BW development resources, and they need to learn and move on to understanding SQL-based coding and custom data warehousing concepts.

I would rate Snowflake a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public 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
DBA Individual Contributor at Aristeia Capital
Real User
Top 20
Good performance, straightforward to set up, and there is flexibility in pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "It's ultra-fast at handling queries, which is what we find very convenient."
  • "Snowflake has support for stored procedures, but it is not that powerful."

What is our primary use case?

Snowflake is used for very large data, such as in the case where tables might contain 600 to 700 million records.

What is most valuable?

It's ultra-fast at handling queries, which is what we find very convenient.

The pricing and licensing model is good.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake has support for stored procedures, but it is not that powerful. They have a lot of limitations. For example, it is really basic and there are limitations on subqueries.

The functions are not very good. Improving this would help to make sure data manipulation much easier. Right now, the inbuilt stored procedures and functions are all Java-based.

For how long have I used the solution?

I Have been using SnowFlake for about five months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 10 people in the organization who are using Snowflake.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good.

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

We use Snowflake in conjunction with Matillion, which is another AWS-based ETL tool. It is being used as a bridge between our on-premises data and Snowflake. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward. You simply log in and start using it.

When it comes to deployment, you can choose between the AWS and Azure cloud. We chose AWS.

What about the implementation team?

It is easy to create an instance and you can do it yourself if you have an AWS account. Snowflake will give you the connection ID and other relevant details.

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

The pricing is flexible in that, for example, if I run a query and it is slow then I can increase the processing power while it is still running, and they charge more for the time. The cost is on a per-query basis.

If you're running with a base processor, called a warehouse, the query might cost 1.0 cents. But, if my query is slow and I want to increase the speed, the next level adds a little more cost to that.

On average, with the number of queries that we run, we pay approximately $200 USD per month.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Recently, we have been doing a review of Redshift. However, we finally decided to go with Snowflake.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering Snowflake is that it is a really good product, especially if you are having issues with Big Data. It is not good for a typical OLTP environment, such as a small table.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public 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
Sushrit Moundekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager at InfoCepts
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A scalable and cost-effective solution that stores data streamed from the source system
Pros and Cons
  • "The best thing about Snowflake is its flexibility in changing warehouse sizes or computational power."
  • "Currently, Snowflake doesn't support unstructured data."

What is our primary use case?

We use Snowflake as a database to store all the data we stream from the source system.

What is most valuable?

The best thing about Snowflake is its flexibility in changing warehouse sizes or computational power. If I want to change the computation with other tools like Netezza, I would have to add a hard disk to it. With Snowflake, being on the AWS side, changing warehouses provides me with faster execution of my queries.

What needs improvement?

The real-time streaming feature is limited with Snowflake and could be improved.

Currently, Snowflake doesn't support unstructured data. With Snowflake, you need to be very particular about the type of data in your source systems. It has to be in a proper structure. You cannot push data to Snowflake in any possible way.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Snowflake is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around 400 users are using the solution in our organization.

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

We previously used IBM Netezza. We switched to Snowflake in 2020 because it provided us control over its scalability and costing model.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is comparatively easier.

What was our ROI?

Snowflake is a cloud-based, scalable solution that provides strong data security. Handling all the data is much easier in Snowflake, and it has a very nice interface to control user access. The administration of Snowflake is also comparatively easier.

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

Snowflake is a cost-effective solution.

What other advice do I have?

Choosing Snowflake completely depends on the quantum of data your organization has and the requirements. Snowflake is suitable for someone looking for a scalable and cost-effective solution that provides quick analysis.

Overall, I rate Snowflake a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public 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.
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Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Increases productivity, is stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "Snowflake is faster than on-premise systems and allows for variable compute power based on need."
  • "Snowflake can improve its machine learning and AI capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

In our organization, data is often spread out over multiple on-premise and cloud-based platforms. Snowflake is an agnostic platform, meaning it can be used regardless of which cloud provider we use and can serve as a single source for all of our data. Our use case then is to ensure that all data is located in one place, utilizing Snowflake as the platform.

How has it helped my organization?

With Snowflake, productivity can be increased. Snowflake is faster than on-premise systems and allows for variable compute power based on need. We are currently experimenting with ways to reduce processing time from eight hours to six hours or even less.

What is most valuable?

The vendor claims that the provision of warming sensors quickly enables warmth to compute nodes, which is their Unique Selling Point. From my experience, this has proven to be true.

What needs improvement?

For the past year and a half, I have experimented with different proof of concept. I have wanted to use Snowflake, however, I have not been able to do so. Microsoft Azure is superior to Snowflake in terms of its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Snowflake has its own unique products, but Azure surpasses it in those areas. Snowflake can improve its machine learning and AI capabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I found that Snowflake is highly stable, which is a reflection of the quality of its network.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have gone to the extremes from a scalability perspective and I give Snowflake's scalability an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

As a premium customer for all these solutions, we have received excellent support overall with no issues encountered thus far. However, it is possible that some users of the free version may be experiencing some issues. I cannot confirm this, but from my experience, there have been no difficulties.

How was the initial setup?

I give the initial setup a seven out of ten for ease and time required.

What about the implementation team?

We are leveraging Snowflake, a cloud-based platform, both independently and in collaboration with the vendor. Our objectives for utilizing Snowflake are distinct from those of the vendor.

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

Comparing Snowflake to on-prem options such as Oracle or SAP, it seemed more cost-effective. With Vantage, a one-time purchase allows for use as many times and to a large capacity, whereas Snowflake, Azure, and similar services become increasingly expensive as the scale increases. Determining the best point of cost-effectiveness requires further study.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have tested all the different alternatives to Snowflake as well. It is hard to determine which one is the most suitable, as each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Deciding between Azure Synapse and Snowflake can be difficult, as the best choice depends on one's own use case. Ultimately, it comes down to the available connectors; the product with more connectors is likely the better option. When making a decision, one should consider which other sources they would want to get data from and where they want to send data to. This can help inform their product selection.

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
Hussain Modu - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Real User
Top 20
Allows us to connect to the database and import required tables into our system
Pros and Cons
  • "This is the advanced version of the cloud version, so it's really a flexible tool. If you have it implemented at home, you can access it from anywhere."
  • "These aren't as crucial, but there are common errors sometimes where the database is down, or a table is nullified and a new table is added and you are not given access to that. With those errors, you don't have permissions."

What is our primary use case?

We're using Snowflake for Power BI Cloud. We had a cloud version of Snowflake, so we were connecting to the Snowflake database and importing required tables into our system, Power BI Desktop. From there, we linked those tables and created a semantic layer, an internal layer between the frontend and backend, and then we tuned the data. Then we used both the tables to tie into the dashboards that we developed. The dashboards show the sales information or marketing information.

It's a cloud solution.

What is most valuable?

I like the entire database. This is the advanced version of the cloud version, so it's really a flexible tool. If you have it implemented at home, you can access it from anywhere.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes when I'm trying to refresh the data, my different application or tool has to connect to its backend database through the connection I create. Sometimes, I face some issues like not having permissions. These aren't as crucial, but there are common errors sometimes where the database is down, or a table is nullified and a new table is added and you are not given access to that. With those errors, you don't have permissions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. It handles a lot of data, and the processing speed is very high.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward. You have to have a rule, database names, and a schema name.

When somebody deploys it and gives me the URL and the required tables to use, I use the URL and configure it from the frontend side, reporting side that could be more like Power BI or Tableau, and I start using it.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 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
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.