Snowflake: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 2. Creating and Managing the Snowflake Architecture

A decade ago, data platform architectures lacked the scalability necessary to make it easier for data-driven teams to share the same data simultaneously regardless of the size of the team or their proximity to the data. The need for scalability grew and demand increased for governed access to that data to generate actionable insights. To meet this demand, modifications were made to existing data platform architectures. However, this did not solve the problem given the sheer number and complexity of the platforms and the data-intensive nature of the applications until Snowflake burst onto the stage with a unique architecture.

Snowflake is an evolutionary modern data platform that solved the scalability problem. Compared to traditional cloud data platform architectures, Snowflake enables data storage and processing that is significantly faster, easier to use, and more affordable. Snowflake’s Data Cloud provides users with a unique experience by combining a new SQL query engine with an innovative architecture designed and built, from the ground up, specifically for the cloud.

Prep Work

Create a new worksheet titled Chapter2 Creating and Managing Snowflake Architecture. Refer to “Navigating Snowsight Worksheets” if you need help creating a new worksheet. To set the worksheet context, make sure you are using the SYSADMIN role and the COMPUTE_WH virtual warehouse.

Traditional Data Platform Architectures

In this section, ...