Manager IT BRM/FRM at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Supports different development languages, but needs better data sharing capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The adaptation to development languages is most valuable. Our developers can SQL code or something else. It has been convenient in that regard."
  • "The data sharing capabilities across business units within the organization should be better."

What is our primary use case?

We're ingesting third-party data analytics into a database held within Snowflake. We have pre-production and production environments with integration to staging and production schemas.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved the way our organization functions. However, we're still pretty elementary in our understanding of how it all works and the complete capabilities of Snowflake.

What is most valuable?

The adaptation to development languages is most valuable. Our developers can SQL code or something else. It has been convenient in that regard.

What needs improvement?

The data sharing capabilities across business units within the organization should be better. There could also be better integration.

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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for a year and three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have high confidence in it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have high confidence in its scalability. In terms of its users, for our solution, we only have a team of 10, but we have plans to increase its usage.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't had any technical contact. All of it has been internal for our organization.

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

This is a net-new solution. So, it's brand new. We chose Snowflake for a variety of reasons, but mainly, we chose it for its scalability and data sharing capabilities.

How was the initial setup?

I would rate it a three out of five in terms of complexity just because we didn't have any Snowflake developers that were available. The implementation took about three months.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it on our own.

What was our ROI?

We have not yet seen an ROI.

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

We're based on credits. So, we're paying four and a half dollars of credit. There are no additional costs. I would rate it a two out of five in terms of pricing.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise ensuring that you have the expertise with domain knowledge in Snowflake. The time from initial concept to deployment could be expedited extremely fast. Just from our internal learnings, we see that our time to production has increased month over month.

I would rate it a six out of ten just because we're unaware or naive to the full capabilities of the product. However, I would highly recommend it in terms of setting up data warehousing internally over an Azure solution, such as Synapse, or something else.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

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

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Associate Data Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
Cheapest tool available in the market for data warehousing
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool is very easy to use. The solution’s desktop features are also very easy to use. Also, the product’s SQL-based connectivity is also good. It can connect with any tool."
  • "Snowflake needs to improve its programming part. Though the tool has Snowpath, it doesn’t support all features like its competitor, Databricks. Snowflake doesn’t support external data ingestion capabilities. You need to have third-party tools for that. Also, the tool needs to incorporate data integration features in its future releases."

What is our primary use case?

We use the product as a data warehouse.

What is most valuable?

The tool is very easy to use. The solution’s desktop features are also very easy to use. Also, the product’s SQL-based connectivity is also good. It can connect with any tool.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake needs to improve its programming part. Though the tool has Snowpath, it doesn’t support all features like its competitor, Databricks. Snowflake doesn’t support external data ingestion capabilities. You need to have third-party tools for that. Also, the tool needs to incorporate data integration features in its future releases.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. You can scale the solution’s computation and storage features separately.

How are customer service and support?

My company is a direct partner of the product. We have a lot of Snowflake experts who can resolve any doubts. Hence, I haven’t felt the need to contact customer service and support.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s setup is easy since it's a SaaS product. The tool’s deployment is fast and wouldn’t take more than two minutes.

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

Snowflake’s pricing is transparent. It is one of the cheapest cloud database warehouse providers. The tool follows a credit cost model. Everything on Snowflake is charged on the basis of credits. The credits depend on the cloud region and the public cloud provider that we use. Hence, the cost per credit will be different for AWS in Frankfurt and AWS in India. I think North Virginia is the cheapest region in terms of cost per credit. You will be consuming around 16 credits for large data warehouses.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. Snowflake is the market leader in data warehousing and cloud database. I don’t think that it has a direct competitor. I would suggest you give Snowflake a try if it fits your use case. You can open up a trial version for 45 days and convert it to a regular account. There are different tiers in the solution like business critical, standard, etc. The tool gets updates every week.

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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Snowflake
September 2023
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Manager at SSM VIT Global Solutions
Real User
It can exchange data with downstream systems and other vendor partners as well
Pros and Cons
  • "I like Snowflake's data exchange capabilities. It can exchange data with downstream systems and other vendor partners as well."
  • "There are some challenges with loading unstructured data and integrating some message queues or brokers. In one project, we had a problem connecting to one of the message queues and we had to take a different route altogether on Microsoft Azure."

What is our primary use case?

My current client is migrating from an on-premise data warehouse to the cloud, and they need to consolidate the data lake. I'm using Snowflake to develop the data lake and build data bots for certain functionalities. I've also used Snowflake to aggregate and clean data for my client's analytics.

What is most valuable?

I like Snowflake's data exchange capabilities. It can exchange data with downstream systems and other vendor partners as well.

What needs improvement?

There are some challenges with loading unstructured data and integrating some message queues or brokers. In one project, we had a problem connecting to one of the message queues and we had to take a different route altogether on Microsoft Azure. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using this product about two years ago at my last company. Now, I'm a registered Snowflake partner, so working with Snowflake for one of my clients.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My clients haven't faced many stability challenges. It is a relatively new product that's still evolving. They're using it mainly for POCs, so they haven't faced any problems. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The most valuable aspect of Snowflake is its scalability. The volume of data, which I have seen across almost in terms of five terabytes and other terabytes of data, I didn't see issues.

How are customer service and support?

Snowflake technical support is good. At my previous company, they had a customer success officer for critical accounts, and they were accessible. When I registered as a partner, I also got a quick response from support. I would rate their support eight out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Setting up Snowflake isn't complex. I've not seen any challenges.

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

They have different pricing structures based on data usage. I think they have three or four tiers you can scale through. Most of the clients see an advantage from this type of licensing. That's the reason they go for it. It's priced competitively with other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Snowflake eight out of 10. 

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
Biraja Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Principal Consultant at Genpact - Headstrong
MSP
Top 10
Excellent support, good data loading speed, and built-in data security and compliance features
Pros and Cons
  • "The speed of data loading and being able to quickly create the environment are most valuable."
  • "If they could bring in some tools for data integration, it would be really great."

What is our primary use case?

We are silver or gold partners. The main use case is that we are building a data lake. We are creating a couple of downstream applications as well that will be used by data scientists. So, we will have a single data lake that will be used across the organization by different business domain users. The data is multi-source. We have data from SAP, JDE, and some Excel files.

What is most valuable?

The speed of data loading and being able to quickly create the environment are most valuable. 

For data, it provides built-in security and compliance with different standards, such as SOC 2, ISO, etc. So, we don't have to do a separate audit for compliance.

What needs improvement?

There are some gray areas. For example, there is no clarity on where the data sits exactly. That is their proprietary information, and they are not sharing those details. 

Its price should be improved. On the cost-side, it is more expensive than others.

If they could bring in some tools for data integration, it would be really great.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is pretty stable. Its stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. As of now, there are 500 users, but slowly, we are planning to roll out to multiple regions. It is currently in Europe, and we will be rolling it out to the APAC and USA regions. By the year-end, there will be more than 1,000 users.

How are customer service and support?

They're perfect. They're excellent. It could be because we are partners.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward. It is not that complex.

What about the implementation team?

Our own team deploys it for customers, but the initial configuration is done only by the Snowflake team because that is their area. 

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

I have worked with multiple clouds, and cost-wise, it is a bit costlier than others, such as Redshift. Its price should be reduced.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Ravi Kuppusamy - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO and Founder at BAssure Solutions
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Useful ETL provisions, continually evolving, and high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "Snowflake has a variety of other ETL provisions that they provide. You can use your own ETL pipeline. Additionally, they provide adapters, and they are always evolving, it is a well-developed solution."
  • "Snowflake has to build more capabilities because they have only built very few adapters, but they're growing and they're building. They should provide provisions to collect ETL pipeline capabilities, reduce developer work, and make more rapid application development, rather than some customizations. There are very few options, but they are building. I hope they will build ETL rapid application development provisions with more variety."

What is our primary use case?

Snowflake is a real-time and cloud-based complete ETL tool. You can receive the beta from various sources from Amazon. You can run your reports and do analysis in  Snowflake. Informatica and Tableau should have done this. Snowflake is a modern version of Informatica which is 100 percent in the cloud.

What is most valuable?

Snowflake has a variety of other ETL provisions that they provide. You can use your own ETL pipeline. Additionally, they provide adapters, and they are always evolving, it is a well-developed solution.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake has to build more capabilities because they have only built very few adapters, but they're growing and they're building. They should provide provisions to collect ETL pipeline capabilities, reduce developer work, and make more rapid application development, rather than some customizations. There are very few options, but they are building. I hope they will build ETL rapid application development provisions with more variety.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Snowflake for approximately eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Snowflake is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Snowflake is a cloud solution that provides great scalability. However, I am not sure if it is cost-effective.

We have approximately 30 engineers using this solution. We have plans to scale our usage in the future. This is going to be a futuristic solution.

How are customer service and support?

We have not had any problems with the technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Snowflake is straightforward. To set up the ETL pipeline, pull the data, and then generate the reports takes approximately two hours, end to end.

What about the implementation team?

I did the implementation in-house. We have a three-member team that does the maintenance of Snowflake. However, the amount of people needed depends on the size of the pipeline.

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

Snowflake licensing is more flexible and it is cheaper than other solutions. I can use it for only 10 days for MVP, or three years, and for flexible models. I can scale up, or down, and the pricing is based on the volume and duration. There are many licensing permutation combinations available.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Snowflake a nine 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
Luis Miguel Goez - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Information Technology Infrastructure at SURA
Real User
Top 10
User-friendly and very reliable for our data lake and data warehouse projects
Pros and Cons
  • "A user-friendly and reliable solution."
  • "The data science functionality could be improved in terms of the machine learning process."

What is our primary use case?

We are currently using this product for data lake and data warehouse projects. Snowflake creates our repositories and enables the view from other tools like Docker and Power BI to create that data mesh. We use the data to create a process inside the warehouse. We are customers of Snowflake and I'm the senior manager of information technology infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

Snowflake is user-friendly and reliable in creating the data warehouse and carrying out data modeling. 

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see the data science functionality improved to a degree that would enable data scientists to work together with the data engineering team. The solution is focused on SQL and some kind of language or free support would be useful and would add some functionality to the machine-learning process. 

The current API is very limited and difficult to configure. It's not easy to create an API and start changing data so some kind of API to expose the data would be good. We use Docker to check the data but if we could get an API that allows other tools to access the data that would be great. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for two years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. There are around 35 people in the company using Snowflake and six engineers dealing with maintenance. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple and took about a month. The main point is to align the data governance and integration process because you only need to click a button to start. We had a service engineer from Snowflake help with that.

What was our ROI?

If you use the tool well, you'll see ROI from your investment.

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

It's important to understand the licensing model because if you're paying for the software, you're not necessarily aware of the use. It's important to monitor how you're using the resources otherwise you can find yourself in a difficult situation. Licensing costs depend on the agreement you have with Snowflake.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Consultant at Independent Consultant
Consultant
Top 20
Straightforward deployment, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "Snowflake has three great features: Snowpiping is proving to be very valuable, Time Travel is excellent, and Snowpipes are another great functionality the solution has made available."
  • "Snowflake needs transparency over costs and pricing."

What is our primary use case?

I mostly build or design data warehouse analytics solutions using Snowflake.

How has it helped my organization?

The productivity across the teams that use Snowflake I believe is higher than it would be without the solution.

What is most valuable?

Snowflake has three great features: Snowpiping is proving to be very valuable, Time Travel is excellent, and Snowpipes are another great functionality the solution has made available.

What needs improvement?

Snowflake needs transparency over costs and pricing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I give the stability an eight out of ten. We rarely have issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

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

I have used many on-premise solutions in the past and also Azure Synapse Analytics.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. I give the setup an eight out of ten.

A basic implementation is quick and we only have to set up Snowflake and the cloud service. We need one engineer and one designer for the implementation.

What about the implementation team?

Depending on the complexity of the implementation, we may need to use a third party or help from the vendor.

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

Part of the problem with the pricing is that it is very difficult for businesses to get an idea of how expensive it might be until they actually start using Snowflake. Until they start pushing large amounts of data through, we will not really know. I believe that it is very difficult for businesses to make a commitment.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

My advice is to start Snowflake and not spend too much time thinking about how we could use the solution or what it could be used for. The key is just getting started.

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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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: September 2023
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Snowflake Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.