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Data Sharing and the Snowflake Marketplace — SA Quick Reference

What It Is

Snowflake enables real-time, zero-copy data access between different Snowflake accounts without the need to move or duplicate files. It allows providers to grant secure, read-only access to specific datasets, effectively turning data into a live service.

Why Customers Care

  • Eliminate Data Latency: Move from "stale" periodic data exports to instant, real-time access to the single source of truth.
  • Slash Operational Costs: Remove the heavy lifting of building, managing, and monitoring expensive ETL pipelines and egress fees.
  • Strengthen Security & Governance: Replace risky, unmonitored "copy-and-send" workflows with centralized, controlled access.

Key Differentiators vs Alternatives

  • Zero-Copy Architecture: Unlike traditional methods, no data is physically moved or duplicated, ensuring the provider maintains total control.
  • Elimination of the "Latency Gap": Unlike S3-to-S3 or FTP transfers, there is no time lag between data being updated and the consumer seeing it. able to access third-party datasets (weather, financial, etc.) as if they were their own internal tables.
  • Zero Egress/Zero Duplication: Significant reduction in TCO by eliminating data transfer fees and redundant storage costs.

When to Recommend It

Recommend this for customers managing B2B partnerships, supply chain ecosystems, or any workflow involving third-party data enrichment. It is ideal for organizations moving from manual, fragmented data silos toward a modern, automated, and interconnected data ecosystem.

Top 3 Objections & Responses

"If we share data, aren't we exposing our entire database and proprietary logic?" → No. You use Secure Views to share only specific rows/columns and to hide the underlying SQL logic from the consumer.

"Won't sharing massive datasets significantly drive up our storage and egress costs?" → No. Because it is zero-copy, there is no data duplication (saving storage) and no data movement (eliminating egress fees).

"Can the consumer accidentally modify or delete our original data?" → No. The consumer mounts the share as a read-only database; they have zero write or delete permissions on your objects.

5 Things to Know Before the Call

  1. The Provider pays for storage; the Consumer pays for the compute (Warehouse) used to query it.
  2. "Zero-copy" is the magic word—it means the data never actually leaves the provider's account.
  3. Use "Secure Views" as your primary talking point for PII and sensitive logic protection.
  4. The Marketplace is for public, searchable data; Private Data Exchanges are for controlled, closed ecosystems.
  5. If the Consumer’s warehouse is suspended, they cannot query the shared data.

Competitive Snapshot

vs Advantage
Traditional ETL (S3/FTP/SFTP) Eliminates data latency and costly egress fees via real-time access.
Manual Data Pipelines Reduces operational overhead and eliminates error-prone, "copy-and-send" workflows.

Source: Data Sharing and the Snowflake Marketplace course section