Snowflake Reviews

We were using MySQL and MongoDB for our regular operations but when we grew, we were forced to handle a huge number of datasets. We could have petabytes of data in and out on a regular basis. We struggled a lot to complete the operations in a timely manner. With Amazon Redshift, we gained a lot in terms of timing, as well as project completion. Even-through we are happy with Redshift, in terms of pricing and availability of nodes, I am more comfortable with Snowflake. Some of the scoring mechanism really works well in the distributed architecture of Snowflake.

• Scalability. This solution has the ability to load a huge number of datasets (I have experience with petabytes of data) and process them. Storage is not limited, and we can increase what we want.
  
• Performance. The distributed architecture of Snowflake has the capacity to process huge datasets faster and allows us to scale up and down according to our needs.
• Flexibility. This feature is helpful for the user to increase the node size and config depending on their need. There is no need to wait for hardware to be in place whenever we increase the dataset. Snowflake provides the option to increase the node or cluster size whenever required.
• Multi-formatted accessibility. The Snowflake engine has the capability to read the following file formats: CSV, DELIMITER, FIXEDWIDTH, AVRO, JSON, BZIP2, GZIP, LZOP. The user can choose which format is best for their requirements.
• Configuration. Even though its running in the AWS platform, it beats their platform product. I feel more flexible with this solution than I do with Redshift.
• Snowpipe. Snowpipe is a better system to feed stream data to the Snowflake database.
  

Snowflake has to improve their spatial components since it doesn't have much in terms of geo-spatial queries.

No

No

It's really good. I am happy with the product and the service.

With Amazon Redshift, we gained a lot in terms of timing as well as project completion. Even through we are happy with Redshift, in terms of pricing and availability of nodes, I am more comfortable with Snowflake.

The initial setup of Snowflake is very simple and straightforward. We do not need to read or understand any of the technical documentation. It is a plug-and-play service or platform.

I have implemented this solution through an in-house team.

I can't directly convey ROI because we are not using only Snowflake. We are using multiple products to increase our revenue and decrease time consumption. This makes it difficult to calculate ROI.

I have experience working in Hadoop & Redshift as well. When I compare the three (Snowflake, Hadoop, and Redshift), Snowflake is more user-friendly in terms of configuration and maintenance.

We are a management consulting firm and do not use this product for ourselves. Rather, it is a service for our clients.

The overall package is quite nice, and there is not one specific feature that I have found more valuable than the others.

The vendor is quite willing to implement requests for development, in particular for larger clients. It is a nice company to work with.

Every product has room for improvement, although in this case, it needs some broadening of the functionality. They could become more complete.

Including more AI functionality would be nice. Microsoft does have more in this regard, although that also has to do with the size of the company.

We have been using Snowflake for a couple of years.

Snowflake is a stable product.

This is definitely a scalable solution.

The technical support is pretty good, particularly if you are a more technical user. The people they have are quite technical, so compared to a lot of other companies where you first get somebody on the phone who has never seen the product, but he or she just works at the center and has to answer the first calls, if you connect with Snowflake, you immediately get somebody who is actually at the proper level.

It also means that if you have less experienced users, it's not that they find it difficult, but then they may get some questions to resolve the issue, which they don't really know the answer to. Sometimes, users may find themselves a bit lost because they don't know how to answer those questions. However, it's not in a negative way. It's more like you get a proper engineer to respond to your issues with Snowflake.

The price of Snowflake is quite reasonable.

Personally, if I have the choice, I would rather recommend Snowflake to my clients over a product from Microsoft, for example. They have some overlapping functionality, but they also have some separate stuff. Snowflake does not have the size to develop at that pace but personally, I find them a more sympathetic company than Microsoft.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are using the Matillion as the ETL tool and Snowflake has storage and there is no data warehouse component for storage.

I like the fact that we don't need a DBA. It automatically scales stuff.

Snowflake has better performance features; it automatically knows the difference between the data volume. It adjusts itself.

The performance is great. It internally optimizes well.

The product is stable.

The solution is scalable.

There are certain special features that are not available. For example, in Oracle, we have an SQL field. We have functions, procedures, packages, et cetera, which you can create similarly in Snowflake. However, it's not that flexible when compared to Oracle.

I've used the solution in the last year.

The product is stable and the performance is excellent. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's extremely reliable. 

Snowflake scales well. If a company needs to expand, it can do so.

We also use Matillion. I find Snowflake a bit better.

We're partners.

While I can't speak to the version number we are using, we're always on the latest version of the solution.

Snowflake is a good product. It is quite robust and scalable. However, a few of the functions are a little complex in Snowflake. 

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

We are using it as a data lake. We are using it as a data warehouse and a data mart. It is basically the entire BI and analytics platform.

I am using its latest version.

We find the data sharing and data marketplace aspects of Snowflake absolutely amazing.

There is a scope for improvement. They don't currently support integration with some of the Azure and AWS native services. It would be good if they can enhance their product to integrate with these services.

It would also be great if it can support stored procedures.

I have been working with it for four years.

It is stable.

It is scalable.

You need to be aware of the bloating costs. It is easy to use, but if you don't use it wisely, then your monthly bill can bloat a lot. You need to be a bit aware of its consumption cost.

I would rate it a seven out of 10.

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

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

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

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

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

It is extremely stable.

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

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

The initial setup is very straightforward.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've used the solution for two years.

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

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

We've never been in touch with technical support.

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

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

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

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

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

The solution is mainly used for analytics in data warehouses. We are independent consultants and customers of Snowflake. 

The scalability of this product is great and the fact that it has a so-called zero clone copy and is near zero maintenance is also great. There are a lot of good features, it's a very sophisticated, cutting edge technology and is super easy to use. They are developing the platform very, very quickly so there are plenty of new features implemented all the time. You can concentrate on implementing things in Snowflake without tuning or configuring it.

There are some functions in the SQL language in other products which are not yet included in Snowflake's SQL. It would be helpful to have those included, they're nice features. It's a minor issue because all those things can be implemented in some other way. Not essential, but it would be nice to have them. 

I've been using this solution for 18 months. 

This is a stable solution and the maintenance and updates are automatic. Snowflake is responsible for that.

I have been quite satisfied with the technical support.

The initial setup is very simple, just go to the internet and start using it. Of course, if it has to implement to part of the customer's own cloud infrastructure, then there are more steps to configure. We provide that service for our customers. 

Everything is included in the license fee which is mid-range in terms of pricing.

The advantage of Snowflake is that you can focus on implementing things in Snowflake without tuning or configuring it. That's the advantage of this solution compared to others. Many other data warehouse solutions need some kind of maintenance or database administration, and that takes time. The extra time means you're being taken away from other things and in that regard, Snowflake is an absolutely great product.

I think the solution is suited to big companies because they tend to have lots of data. The more data you have, the more you need power and scalability to process it. I would recommend finding a good partner already familiar with the solution for implementation. It's good to have someone familiar with the architecture.

I rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We use Snowflake as a data migration platform.

Data Science capabilities are the most valuable feature.

To ensure the proper functioning of Snowflake as an MDS, it relies heavily on other partner tools. As a result, our solution architects must devote most of their time to addressing this issue.

I have been using Snowflake for two years.

I give the stability a nine out of ten.

I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support team is good.

The initial setup is straightforward. Since Snowflake is software, the only requirements to start using it are to select a subscription and activate our account.

I give Snowflake a nine out of ten.

Snowflake is being used at the enterprise level.

If an organization is interested in embarking on its cloud journey and Snowflake fulfills its requirements, I would recommend it as a viable solution.