Snowflake SnowPro Core Certification Study Guide

Chapter 7Cloning and Data Sharing

THE SNOWPRO CORE EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• 5.0 Domain: Snowflake Overview & Architecture
• 5.1 Outline key components of Snowflake's Cloud data platform.
  • Continuous data protection
  • Cloning
  • Data Cloud/Data Sharing/Data Marketplace/Data Exchange
• 5.2 Outline Snowflake data sharing capabilities.
  • Account types
  • Data Marketplace & Exchange
  • Access Control options
  • Shares
• 6.0 Domain: Storage and Protection
• 6.2 Outline Continuous Data Protection with Snowflake.
  • Cloning

Snowflake's unique architecture, reliance on micro-partitions, excellent cloud services layer, and metadata management underpin several novel features. These features include zero-copy cloning and data sharing without moving the data. This chapter describes zero-copy cloning and how it works before taking you through some hands-on exercises on cloning. The chapter then describes data sharing and how it works, and describes the three high-level approaches to data sharing in Snowflake.

Zero-Copy Cloning

Cloning, or zero-copy cloning, is a feature provided by Snowflake that allows users to create a clone of a table, schema, or database without physically copying the data. Cloning provides immediate benefits by reducing the need for extra storage and fast speed of the copy operation. Since cloning does not physically copy data, the process is much faster than a traditional copy operation. It does not require additional storage space because there ...