Zero-ETL data sharing

Data sharing provides a broader and richer dataset for analysis, leading to more comprehensive insights and reduced time and effort around data acquisition. By breaking down data silos, organizations can combine diverse data sources, uncover hidden patterns, and generate more accurate and reliable analytics outcomes. This collaborative approach fosters innovation, improves decision-making and accelerates the entire analytics lifecycle.

Snowflake Sharing supports data mesh architecture by enabling the core principles of decentralized data ownership, including domain-driven ownership, “data-as-a product” capabilities, self-service data infrastructure, federated governance and data product interoperability. Snowflake Sharing provides built-in capabilities like Listings, Internal Marketplace, Horizon Catalog for governance and more, closely aligned with data mesh's vision of decentralized data ownership and frictionless data access, allowing organizations to build a more agile, scalable and collaborative data ecosystem.

When sharing on Snowflake, you can package your data as "data products" by combining Shares with rich metadata, documentation, and sample queries. These can then be offered internally to other teams or externally via the Snowflake Marketplace (as Listings). This "data-as-a-product" approach makes your shared data more discoverable, understandable and ready-to-use, enabling consumers to quickly derive value.

A Share is a named object that acts as a container for database objects that you want to share with other Snowflake accounts. It's a secure, real-time way to grant read-only access to your data without copying or moving it.

A Listing is a data product offered by a provider to one or more consumer accounts. It's built on top of Shares but adds extra capabilities like discoverability — particularly on the Snowflake Marketplace — the ability to include metadata and even monetization options.

Shares are better suited for direct relationships and Listings if you want wider distribution or more built-in features.

Snowflake allows you to share Apache Iceberg tables that are managed by Snowflake (Snowflake Managed Iceberg Tables) or registered with Snowflake (externally managed Iceberg tables using an external catalog like Polaris Catalog or Snowflake Open Catalog). You can include these Iceberg tables in a Share, just like native Snowflake tables, enabling consumers to query this data live in its open format without data movement.

Some of the security and governance features of Snowflake Data Sharing include:

Secure views & UDFs: Share curated views or use functions to mask sensitive data.

Role-based access control (RBAC): Consumers access shared data based on privileges granted by the provider on the share.

No data movement: Data doesn't leave the provider's account.

Auditability: All sharing activities and data access are logged.

Revocable access: Providers can revoke access at any time.

Snowflake Horizon: Features like data classification, access history, and lineage can be applied to understand and govern shared data.

For data providers: There are no direct costs for creating shares or listings. You continue to pay for the storage of the data in your account.

For data consumers: Consumers pay for the compute resources (their virtual warehouses) they use to query the shared data. There are no charges for accessing the data itself through a share. If a listing on the Snowflake Marketplace is monetized, specific pricing terms set by the provider would apply.

Reader accounts: Providers can create reader accounts for consumers who don't have their own Snowflake account. The provider incurs the compute costs for queries run by their reader accounts.