We’ve covered what a cloud data warehouse is, the benefits, and how the Snowflake cloud data warehouse can help you reach your data goals. But how do you know if it’s the right time to jump on the cloud data bandwagon? When analyzing your organization’s data practice and whether moving to the cloud is the correct next step, here are a few things to take into consideration.
If your company already has a large, built-out on-prem environment hierarchy, it may not be in best interest to go to a cloud offering. With a large environment already established, there are often a lot of processes that are already formed and thoroughly tested and it would not make sense to re-invent a wheel that is already fully functional. Migrating your environments to a cloud offering would be the best route if this fits your company. Some tips here would be to vet out which offering fits your company needs and utilize tools like PowerShell dbatools to help smooth out migration.
Snowflake would be a great opportunity to step into the as-a-service realm if this is the case. Offerings that are __-as-a-service offer low to no maintenance for the users. This is ideal for small companies because administrators can often come with a large price tag. As-a-service cuts out the need for these extra administrators.
Data lakes can be formed in different ways. One common platform is to utilize the Hadoop platform, but this is not the sole option available to consumers. Snowflake offers a platform that can be leveraged as a data lake. This streamlines where your data is housed – both databases and data lakes can both be housed in your Snowflake instance. If a data lake is already formed, it is not always the best option to migrate the process to a new platform.
So, what happens when you are ready to join the Snowflake bandwagon? I recommend starting small and migrating piece-by-piece. During this period of movement, evaluate how the process is resonating within the company: Are the users comfortable with the switch? Are the result times optimized? Is feedback positive? Snowflake architecture helps with evaluating all these points and more by being instantaneously scalable and offering pre-packaged admin monitoring sources.
While these considerations are not all-encompassing, they are some great basic starting points to start your evaluation. Snowflake has varying editions of their cloud data platform, each serving levels of business needs in different ways, so it is vital to determine and compare each edition to the needs of the company.
Our experts here at Continuus can help you determine which edition of the Snowflake cloud data platform will best meet your needs. If you feel your organization meets these considerations, or you just have general questions about cloud infrastructure, shoot us a message!