My company uses Snowflake Analytics for data lake, data warehouse, data mart, and other related stuff.
Assistant Manager Operations at Tech Mahindra Limited
A solution that is fast at work and easy to deploy with a need to consider making its prices more affordable
Pros and Cons
- "Features like the fact that the solution is very fast and available on the cloud are some of the valuable attributes of the solution."
- "The solution's high price can be an area of concern that needs improvement."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Features like the fact that the solution is very fast and available on the cloud are some of the valuable attributes of the solution.
What needs improvement?
We are satisfied with the solution since Snowflake brings in a lot of new features now and then.
The solution's high price can be an area of concern that needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Snowflake Analytics for four years. My company has a partnership with Snowflake Analytics. I am using the solution's latest version.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Around 50 users use the solution in my company.
Our company's clients consist of medium and enterprise-sized businesses.
How are customer service and support?
The support provided by Snowflake is fine since they are fast and helpful. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate the setup phase a nine or ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy. The solution's setup phase was easy.
The solution is deployed on the cloud.
The deployment time taken for the solution was six months.
There was nothing much involved in the deployment process. The deployment process involved just exporting the base objects.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a seven. The solution's pricing is high.
There are no costs in addition to its standard licensing price.
What other advice do I have?
After considering the pricing part of the solution, those planning to use it can start using it. The pricing of the solution falls on the higher side. Feature-wise, the solution is really good. If a company can afford the tool, the solution is good in its category.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Data Analyst at Wespath Benefits and Investments
Intuitive solution that provides variety of tools for performing advanced analytics
Pros and Cons
- "It ensures the optimization of the application development while maintaining the user-friendly nature of its UI."
- "Machine learning should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for our full application operational analytics, including building, storing, and analyzing the data. It provides us with detailed insight, making it easy to extract needed reports. Everything related to business intelligence, whether it's reporting or analytical modules, is stored on the Snowflake Analytics platform.
What is most valuable?
It's an intuitive platform that allows organizations to rapidly adapt, providing the ability to quickly analyze and make data-driven decisions. It ensures the optimization of the application development while maintaining the user-friendly nature of its UI.
What needs improvement?
Machine learning should be improved. Some of the solutions, such as Databricks, offer an option to directly write and integrate Python code on the spot, but Snowflake doesn't have that feature yet. Adding it would be useful, as it would facilitate building models.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Snowflake Analytics for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It offers good scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I am highly satisfied with their level of customer service and support. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was done seamlessly.
What about the implementation team?
There was no requirement for installation. They provided us with a link, giving us access to the cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an expensive solution, but the kind of usability and flexibility it proactively provides for the organizations justify the price.
What other advice do I have?
Snowflake Analytics is a really good choice for organizations that are looking at a cloud analytics platform for reporting, data modeling, and advanced analytics without machine learning requirements.
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?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Snowflake Analytics
December 2024
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Data Engineer at Imriel
Scale resources flexibly while managing large datasets and improved cost savings
Pros and Cons
- "Its structure aids in storing, managing, and analyzing large datasets in the cloud, using various relationships like one-to-one and many-to-one, ensuring consistency in the data structure."
- "Improvements are needed in importing and exporting large datasets to and from reporting tools."
What is our primary use case?
We use Snowflake Analytics for programs where we write stored procedures which are imported into tables and later used for generating reports via reporting tools.
What is most valuable?
Snowflake Analytics is flexible in nature, allowing for the addition of more data tables without affecting the main structure. It supports scalability by enabling the scaling of resources up and down depending on demand, which is facilitated through cloud computing platforms.
Snowflake also helps in improving cost savings. Its structure aids in storing, managing, and analyzing large datasets in the cloud, using various relationships like one-to-one and many-to-one, ensuring consistency in the data structure.
What needs improvement?
Improvements are needed in importing and exporting large datasets to and from reporting tools. A better recording system for tracking changes to the data structure, including user IDs and timestamps, is needed for increased transparency.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Snowflake Analytics for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
During the development stage, there were many maintenance issues, however, these were minimized over time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake Analytics is highly scalable as data can be added to the structure without necessitating comprehensive changes. It handles scaling effectively, particularly in a cloud-based environment.
How are customer service and support?
We did not need to escalate many questions to tech support compared to other tools, indicating minimal reliance on Snowflake's tech support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with AWS as a cloud data warehouse.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup involved creating a Snowflake account and installing the ODBC driver, taking a couple of days. Moving from development to production took 24 continuous hours.
What about the implementation team?
Four people were involved, with a lead taking charge, while I supported the task.
What was our ROI?
By using clones, we allowed multiple teams to work simultaneously on data without affecting the main dataset. This saved time and maintained consistency, though I am not sure about the financial aspects.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The project managers handled pricing. We minimized time requirements by using indexes and constraints. Clones and servers were used efficiently to address cost issues.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
Snowflake requires skilled developers, unlike other tools. It is suitable for managing large, structured, and analyzable datasets.
I would rate Snowflake eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Dec 3, 2024
Flag as inappropriateTechnical Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Provides multiple development tools to build applications and integrate
How has it helped my organization?
In one project, the vendor also uses Snowflake for analytics, housing the data within their Snowflake instance. Previously, we retrieved this data via FTP and then employed a Python program to read and load it into our tables. However, by leveraging Snowflake, we can now directly access this data.
What is most valuable?
Snowflake provides multiple development tools. You can build applications with Snowflake and integrate them with Java and Python. You can write code in Python and Java and use secure features.
What needs improvement?
Some functionalities available through SQL are inaccessible in Python or Java within Snowflake. Snowflake must enhance its support for these programming languages to offer full flexibility and capacity, allowing developers to use them.
Currently, there are restrictions. For example, using Spark Engine with Snowflake allows you to write code but not call external functions or packages. Snowflake must improve its programmatic capabilities to support better engineers and developers, especially those transitioning from big data technologies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Snowflake Analytics for two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake Analytics offers scalable data warehousing solutions that can effectively handle large volumes of data. Increasing the capacity of the data warehouse can enhance its scalability, making it more adept at capturing and managing big data.
What other advice do I have?
The organization is completely focused on moving its processes and data to Snowflake. Once this is done and the business starts consuming and extracting data from Snowflake, value realization will occur.
Initially, we began with our SaaS platform on AWS. When transitioning data from AWS to Snowflake, we found a seamless integration between the two platforms, making it easier to access data from Snowflake. This integration retrieves and uses data, contributing to the wide acceptance and adoption of Snowflake Analytics.
The data creation and consumption teams have separate roles, allowing for a clear delineation of responsibilities. This ensures the consuming team only accesses the products or data relevant to their tasks. We maintain efficient data management and security by creating roles for the consumer team and providing access accordingly.
Data-driven decisions have improved significantly. Previously, we had multiple small copies of the data scattered across different locations. With Snowflake, we've consolidated everything into one golden copy of the data. Someone who needs a subset of that data can create views or access specific subsets directly. This setup allows us to track who has access to the data and its origin. Consumers don't need to go to multiple places to get the data. They know the central location to access or request the data and the available data products. This centralization will help in making more informed, data-driven decisions.
I recommend Snowflake Analytics if you are looking for a reliable and well-regarded solution. It has gained significant traction in the market. Snowflake is an excellent choice for analytics purposes. While companies need to research other available tools, Snowflake is a good option.
Overall, I rate the solution 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.
Last updated: May 26, 2024
Flag as inappropriateVice President --Analytics & Digital Transformation at Polestar Solutions & Services India Pvt Ltd
Comes with a simple learning curve, making it easy to understand and learn for users
Pros and Cons
- "Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
- "The product's cost is an area of concern where improvements are required."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company for the real estate and housing industry. The tool is also used in the CPG industry.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefits that my company has experienced from the use of the product stem from the fact that it is easy to maintain the platform. The most important part about the product is that it is designed with the help of SQL, so users need not have a specific skill set to run the product. Any person with knowledge of SQL can easily use the product.
What is most valuable?
The most significant feature of the product that has an impact on data analytics stems from the fact that the tool offers functionalities to help users with data warehousing and AI features. The features of the product are available in such a way that there is a separation in the nature of the computation and storage part the tool offers, making the overall tool very fast. The product is easy to use since it uses SQL or structured query language. Most of the people or technicians in the market are comfortable with SQL or structured query language, making it a tool that is easy to use and understand since it is easy to learn about the solution. Developers or programmers with knowledge of SQL can easily move to Snowflake Analytics, as the product comes with a simple learning curve.
What needs improvement?
The tool needs to introduce a desktop client so that users can handle the design part, as it is one area where the product lacks and needs to improve. Instead of having to visit the product's web portal, the tool should be installed on a desktop client through which users can indulge in the development process on their local systems.
The product's cost is an area of concern where improvements are required. One part of the cost is attached to the product, and the other part is attached to the solution provider. There should be more transparency provided to users, stating which costs are attached to the product and the prices managed by the solution provider.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with Snowflake Analytics for five years. My company has implemented the product for some of our clients.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
A lot of features are offered under different tools from Snowflake Analytics. Recently, the product has started to use Python language, along with other languages like SQL. Users need to rely on and use the cloud to carry on with the development phase attached to the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake Analytics offers the same amount of scalability as the other solutions in the market because it is a tool that is available on the cloud. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
My company deals with around six to seven customers of the product.
I would say that around 100 people use the tool.
How are customer service and support?
There is a different team in my company that connects with the solution's technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase is easy in the areas of development and implementation.
The product's deployment phase needs users to follow the standard procedures used under the CI/CD deployment process. You can design it with the help of the CI/CD deployment process. The deployment process is simple.
The solution is deployed on the cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product's licensing cost varies depending on the models and different structures offered by the solution. I feel that the cost of the product is fine. I rate the product's licensing cost a five or six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price.
What other advice do I have?
The product is useful in areas like data warehouse and data analytics since such functionalities of the tool are widely used by my company's clients.
Considering the ease of use that the product provides to support my company's teams' daily operations, I would say that the tool offers help in the area of projects and support.
The product handles data security and compliance areas by providing high security as the tool offers container services, making it highly secure for users during data sharing. The users can have permission authority, without which others cannot see the data that is highly secured within the container.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.
The product is easy to scale out. The solution is available on the cloud, and its basic development nature falls under the SQL side, which is something that makes it favorable for development teams across the world. It is easy to learn about the product and start working on it, meaning it has a simple learning curve.
I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Senior Analytics Engineer at TalkDesk
An easy-to-use solution that performs well and provides excellent integrations
Pros and Cons
- "It's not necessary to use a physical server."
- "The UI must be improved."
What is most valuable?
I like the integrations available in the product. We can send the data to our data warehouse if we want to transform it. I like the cloud solution. It's not necessary to use a physical server.
What needs improvement?
The UI must be improved. It would be pretty helpful to have some images showing what we are doing and how we use the tool.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten. We don't have any problem with data orchestration or data transformation. It’s pretty good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s scalability a nine out of ten. The tool is dedicated to the data team. Around 20 to 30 people use the product in our organization.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Redshift and other data warehouses from Google. I used them to extract data in Oracle for 18 years while working in a telecom company. I prefer Snowflake over the others.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a little bit hard. It was especially hard to create a connection with the product team. The product team generated the data, and we had to create some tasks before they were sent to Snowflake. It was difficult because everyone was pretty new to the solution and did not have the necessary knowledge then. The setup was not intuitive. By the end, we understood how to deploy it. The product is deployed on the cloud. The initial deployment took one or two weeks. Later, it takes two or three days to change or update things.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the product in-house.
What other advice do I have?
Using the product is more about our perception and technical skills in data modeling and querying. If we use it well, the tool runs well more than 90% of the time. It’s easy to use the solution because it has everything that we need. It performs well. People who want to use the solution must create a demo account and try using it. We must optimize our SQL queries. It is helpful to understand the volume of our data before writing codes. Overall, I rate the tool a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
A scalable and stable solution that helps to generate insights
Pros and Cons
- "I am impressed with the product's data-sharing feature."
- "The tool should support EIM use cases. I guess the product is already working on it. I look forward to seeing inbuilt AI generative tools in the solution's future releases. The tool's price can be a little lower. The solution's on-premises support is also very limited. We have to rely on other support services to deploy it on-premises."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product to generate insights.
What is most valuable?
I am impressed with the product's data-sharing feature.
What needs improvement?
The tool should support EIM use cases. I guess the product is already working on it. I look forward to seeing inbuilt AI generative tools in the solution's future releases. The tool's price can be a little lower. The solution's on-premises support is also very limited. We have to rely on other support services to deploy it on-premises.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the product's stability a nine out of ten since it is stable and reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has more than 1000 users for the tool.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's support responds fast.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the solution's setup a nine out of ten. Being a SaaS product, the setup is straightforward. The solution's setup becomes complex only when you need to create a specific cloud platform which is virtual or public. If you have a CI/CD pipeline ready, then deployment can be automated. The tool's deployment doesn't take more than a day to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution's price is high and I would rate it an eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it an eight out of ten. The solution is very easy to use. The tool is a SaaS product. You can leverage your overall data analytics strategy with the solution. It has a lot of features and you shouldn't consider it for data storage alone. In the future, we will be able to leverage the solution of ML-oriented used cases as well.
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
V.P. Digital Transformation at e-Zest Solutions
Provides great performance and flexibility
Pros and Cons
- "Very good flexibility and it offers computation completely decoupled from the storage."
- "If you have a lot of computations, it becomes very costly."
What is our primary use case?
Snowflake replaces enterprise data warehouses that have traditionally been on-premise and had to be managed by the enterprises themselves. We are a services company and we create these data platforms for our enterprise customers in a variety of industries including health care, education, travel and tourism. We create and build services around Snowflake and part of my job is to assess its suitability for our enterprise customers. We are partner of Snowflake.
What is most valuable?
The solution is completely managed and that's fantastic. Its a true SaaS kind of Data platform. You can create analytical products as a SaaS offering, nothing needs to be installed and no licenses needed. The solution can run on AWS, Azure and on Google Cloud and you can choose the underlying cloud on which Snowflake creates your databases, uses different services, stores your accounts and stores your data. It offers high flexibility. It offers computation completely decoupled from the storage so you pay fees for computation cost only, and storage is very very cheap. For example, within the enterprise data warehouse, if the total compute time is two hours a day but the traditional setup has to be maintained and managed round the clock, and the data also has to be permanently stored, them moving to Snowflake would ensure that the enterprise pay much less for storage, and pay for only 2 hours of computation. Performance-wise also it's a good solution.
What needs improvement?
In your data platform, if you have a lot of computations, Snowflake can becomes costlier with. There can be some complexity when designing your warehouses or enterprise data, but that is based on your requirements and not the underlying warehouse that you choose.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for about 4-5 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's extremely stable because it's backed up, load-balanced and has the elasticity that the underlying cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) provides.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and has the concept of creating virtual resources, so as an example, I can buy 10 gigabytes of data capacity, then decide to process that data every day, Snowflake then takes care of creating multiple databases/storages, and scales by itself. I don't need any calculations of load or throughput worked out beforehand. For most other similar products, such as RedShift or Azure Synapse, you have to work out your average load and peak loads beforehand , and provision the warehouse and other services. In Snowflake, you don't need to do that, it auto-scales up and down.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service has and support are at par with any professional Data Platform service.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. You buy an account, and add the number of accounts you need, and that's it. It takes about five minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution can become expensive when you increase your computation. So one has to design the solution very carefully and optimally. Leverage it heavily for Storage, but for compute, make sure the resources (e.g. Virtual Warehouses, Snowpipe, Streams, Tasks etc.) as well as the transformations are used in the most optimum way. For example, during the design time, the technical team has to wisely think if your data marts can be Views or Tables (View consumes compute, but Tables consume Storage), how frequently your data marts need an update, whether you should write lesser but complex queries of more but simpler transformation queries and stored procedures and many other things. But its ease of use, decoupling of Compute from Storage, ability to share data, and highly managed behavior make it worth the money.
What other advice do I have?
I highly recommend Snowflake wherever possible.
I rate this solution 9 out of 10.
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
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