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Architect at Sony Corporation of America
Real User
Stable with good technical support, but the solution is expensive on longrun
Pros and Cons
  • "As long as you don't need to worry about the storage or cost, this solution would be one of the best ones on the market for scalability purposes."
  • "There are some stored procedures that we've had trouble with. The solution also needs to fine-tune the connectors to be able to connect into the system source."

What is our primary use case?

Our aim was to migrate everything from on-premise, so we just migrated as it is and then we had issues. Some use cases that were running on-premises were not installed. We just went through each case and then finalized the issues with some of the packages that were not working or some users that were not getting what they were expecting. We did deep analysis on each and every case and then looked for options in Snowflake and are now working with the team to move everything over to Snowflake

What is most valuable?

The data warehouse is one of the great concepts of Snowflake. The coding plans are also a great feature. You can switch out the values or sizes. 

What needs improvement?

It would be helpful if implementation could be handled more on the user-side. We need to train the users on best practices and how to use the solution properly. It's a cost issue. If they don't run it properly then it'll end up costing more money.

There are some stored procedures that we've had trouble with. The solution also needs to fine-tune the connectors to be able to connect into the system source.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for one year.
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Snowflake
March 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. We had only one failure, but that was because of AWS issues. Beyond that, I haven't seen anything else. From the Snowflake side, within 10 minutes they reported the AWS issue. It was under two hours of downtime because of the quick response.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As long as you don't need to worry about storage or cost, this solution would be one of the best ones on the market for scalability purposes. We've migrated about 400-450 dealers onto the solution so far. We do intend to expand usage so there will be more users and more data. The drawbacks we've had with on-premises was space being a constraint and the user code having limitations.

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is good. There is always someone who's going to respond. They will let you know what can be done and what is possible.

How was the initial setup?

We did some testing and some comparisons, but it's all set up now and running fine. The deployment took about three months. Since we didn't want to disrupt the on-premises, or overload the system, we did most of the migrations on the weekend.

For maintenance, in the beginning, until you are through with training and performance tuning, you will need more people. You might need to start with seven or so, and then, for ongoing work, probably one or two people can manage it. 

What about the implementation team?

We had a Snowflake consultant on-site that assisted us with the implementation.

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

It's an expensive solution. We can't predict exactly how much until we've streamlined everything and the user requirements have been completed, but normally they charge on the storage, which depends upon the average storage amount used for the month.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at IBM because it also has on-premise solutions. We also looked at Azure as well as AWS.

What other advice do I have?

Because most of the issues you come across can be dealt with on the user's sites, it's important to educate the users and understand their requirements.

The best advice I can give is to understand the product and to try to stick to what is required. From the business side, you need to monitor usage and monitor the space because of on-premises constraints. If it gets filled up then you will have to react. However, this solution is very scalable. 

I would rate this solution between seven and eight out of ten. The solution still has some constraints that need to be addressed.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1251369 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal IT Technologist- BI Platform Architect at Medtronic
Real User
Good snapshot and rollback features and has good scaling options
Pros and Cons
  • "The snapshot feature is good, the rollback feature is good and the interface is user-friendly."
  • "Availability is a problem."

What is our primary use case?

We use this product basically for developing an IoT (Internet of Things). Currently, we are sending data from our S3 (Simple Storage Service) storage. In the future, we are planning to directly stream data to Snowflake.

What is most valuable?

In terms of features, we have not yet explored the product completely. So we are still in the proof of concept phase. As of now, the product meets our preliminary requirements. The snapshot feature is good and the rollback feature is good. That is why we have the product and these are the key things we need.

What needs improvement?

The recovery process is very simple and very user-friendly as well. The constraint files could be improved. But the most important things are there. Also, the interface is good to work with and user-friendly.

If I had to say what needs improvement, in my experience is that the availability is a problem. Availability should be high and has to be enhanced.

I still have not explored all of the existing features. Because I have not been deeply involved with using the program it is hard to say what else is missing or what I would need.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have just explored the product for a few months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Snowflake is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is very good and very simple.

Within the company, we currently have a total of fewer than 50 people using the product. Their general roles vary from data analyst to data scientist, to IT professionals, and maybe one or two of the upper managers.

How are customer service and technical support?

I tried using technical support once and they were very helpful. But after that, I have not had any reason to explore the support services.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was done by the vendor.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing to work with Snowflake we looked at virtual solutions and we looked at Redshift, we looked at Qubole and a couple of other cloud options. Earlier when we did a mining site, I was working with Alteryx, so I was already familiar with that product and its capabilities to use for comparison. We decided to go with Snowflake because it seemed mature and had what we wanted.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to someone who is looking at Snowflake is that if they are looking at analytics tools in addition to warehousing and certain advantages of cloud computing, then I would suggest Snowflake. But if they are just looking for the warehousing part where you will later just use another solution on top of it, then I would not suggest Snowflake.

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Snowflake as an eight or nine. Let's say 8.5.

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
Buyer's Guide
Snowflake
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Snowflake. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1701372 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
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
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reasonably priced, simple to set up, and expands well
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it."

What is our primary use case?

Basically, if at all, we wanted to have an interface for data warehouses on the cloud which worked on Azure or AWS. Snowflake, provides a more intuitive, rapid user interface where people can connect and maintain warehouses and share data among the people in the companies easily. Its pricing model and the model have made maintaining virtual warehouses simpler.

What is most valuable?

I appreciate the Snowflake marketplace, where you can drop data and allow other people throughout the world to access it. You can go to the Snowflake marketplace and connect to some data. If somebody else publishes, for example, COVID-19 data or weather data, you can sign up for new data sets and bring them into your warehouse, which I found very interesting.

You can connect to different cloud sources, including Azure and AWS. 

You can report out, and all the cloud technologies have connected to Snowflake, allowing you to move the data or get the data into Snowflake. 

The initial setup was pretty simple. 

It scales really well. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is reasonably priced. 

What needs improvement?

I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it.

Overall, they're doing great. I don't have any specific complaints or improvements that need to happen.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for a couple of years now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is quite stable since everything is in the cloud, and the data these days has become cheap with storage and everything in the cloud. Through clusters and warehouses, sizes can be increased or decreased based on usage, and they can be turned on and turned off. Sustainability-wise, I think it's a pretty good solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. The warehouses or auto-scaling features in the warehouses are great. You can go from small to medium to large all the way up to extra large, and there are different auto-scaling tasks that can happen. You can turn it on and turn it off based on the usage or auto-turn it on and turn it off. That's a pretty nice feature to have and we find it both sustainable and scalable for sure.

I work for clients, so last time when I worked for a client, there was a group of 100 people who were actually signed up to use Snowflake. 

How are customer service and support?

I've never dealt with technical support. We did have people from Snowflake working with us directly, and we never ran into any issues that needed troubleshooting. The personnel from Snowflake, of course, would resolve whatever came up. 

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

I come from an Azure background as well, so Microsoft also comes with Azure Synapse, where it's a similar functionality as Snowflake, where it's warehousing on the cloud. Azure Synapse is also good. I'm unaware of AWS or GCP, and I heard that Google Cloud Platform also has Big Query and big data capabilities, which are tough competitors for Snowflake and other cloud warehousing tools.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation process was pretty straightforward. I didn't set it up, though. I used an already set up version. I just had to connect. I had to push data from Azure to Snowflake, create tables there, and have data loaded into those tables, and that's it. I wasn't doing anything else, so I didn't work on the infrastructure of Snowflake.

You would need a group of two or three people to maintain the product.

What about the implementation team?

I work for a consulting firm, so I don't work for the client, so I really don't know what the company used for deployment.

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

Licensing was based on the warehouse. I don't recall it being very expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm a consultant and end-user.

I'm not currently using the solution right now and do not recall the last version I was on. 

Now, I'm working for a different client on a different platform altogether. My company, as such, doesn't use Snowflake since we are in consulting. We have expertise in something, and then we help the clients deliver that solution on the technology.

Potential new users should just definitely give it a shot. They should start off with a POC, proof of concept, for the data that they have, and then, if everything works well and they can migrate in a cost-effective way. 

I would recommend Snowflake to start off with since it's just picking up over the last couple of years. If I have to recommend anything, however, it would be more Microsoft tools I would recommend since that all comes as a package. You can do Synapse and Azure Data Factory, which is  for ETL. You can also do Azure Data Lake Storage. There are different things that you can do when you buy something in a package like that. That said, I definitely recommend Snowflake if someone wants to give it a shot.

I'd rate the solution 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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vinoth Raj Prabhakaran - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Architect at Tata Consultancy Services
Real User
High performance, scalable, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Snowflake are its performance and power."
  • "Snowflake could improve if they had an Operational Data Store(ODS) space."

What is our primary use case?

Snowflake is used for data warehousing.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Snowflake are its performance and power.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake could improve if they had an Operational Data Store(ODS) space.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Snowflake is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Snowflake is very good.

I have approximately six customers using this solution but in addition, I am directing more.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from Snowflake was poor previously, they have improved significantly.

How was the initial setup?

Snowflake has an easy setup and it is quick.

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

There is a license needed to use this solution. There are a few licensing options available. They have a pay-as-you-go option, but it is recommended to pay upfront.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Snowflake a nine out of ten.

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 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
Sunny Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Specialist Programmer at Infosys
MSP
Simple setup, reliable, and high performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Snowflake is its performance. We can access the data quickly. Additionally, it handles structured and non-structured data."
  • "The solution could improve by allowing non-structured data, such as PDFs, images, or videos. We cannot see the data."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Snowflake for migrating data and table backups.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Snowflake is its performance. We can access the data quickly. Additionally, it handles structured and non-structured data.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by allowing non-structured data, such as PDFs, images, or videos. We cannot see the data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Snowflake is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Snowflake is a scalable solution.

We have approximately 200 to 300 people using the solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Snowflake is easy.

What other advice do I have?

If the use case fits the solution then I would recommend it. For example, if you have large data and want the rational database backed up, this solution would be a good choice.

I rate Snowflake 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?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Practice Head at Vyom Labs
Real User
Top 5
Users can pay as they use and not worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud."
  • "It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports."

What is our primary use case?

The solution has use cases related to retail stores and sales.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud.

What needs improvement?

The solution’s pricing could be cheaper. It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports.

For how long have I used the solution?


What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Snowflake is a scalable solution. We have four to five customers for Snowflake who use it regularly.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

The solution's deployment in a development environment takes only a couple of minutes.

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

Users have to pay a licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Snowflake is deployed on the cloud. The solution is providing HIPAA compliance, which is sufficient. Users looking for a pay-as-you-use product available on Azure or AWS should consider Snowflake.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight 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: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.