What is Snowflake?

Implemented as a fully-relational SQL database, Snowflake supports both structured and semi-structured data, standard SQL queries, and ACID compliance without complex administration or operation requirements. The Snowflake Architecture separates data storage from a multi-clustered compute facility enabling a unique, scalable, and managed resource for a data warehouse in the cloud.

The key to understanding how the Snowflake database works is that the storage mechanism (built upon AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage or Google Cloud Storage) is separated from the compute mechanism. They work together when a connection is made. This allows Snowflake to deliver a highly-scalable database in the cloud where you add more storage as needed, and create an elastic cluster for computational work. Simply put, you pay for what you use when you use it.

Snowflake provides a web-based Workbench for user access to the administration and configuration of an environment. Creating a Warehouse is easy, sized appropriate to needs. Configuration settings support when an idle instance should shut down, and the number of nodes to spin up as needed.

Switching to the Database tab, creating a database and granting user permissions to it is also quite easy. Here you can see the tables in a selected database and its current footprint.

The Worksheet tab provides users a graphical interface to execute SQL queries directly against a database.

For additional details on Snowflake and its inner workings, visit the www.snowflake.net website.