Snowflake Development: A Dive Into Some Tips and Tricks

As the business landscape continues to change, experts at RTS Labs believe that Snowflake will remain a key player in the future of data management. (Source: RTS labs)

In order to gauge a better understanding of the above Snowflake development, we need to first look more deeply into what Snowflake really is. 

Snowflake is a cloud data warehouse platform that has gained popularity recently. Snowflake went public in September 2020, making it the largest software IPO in history and one of the biggest IPOs of the year. Since then, Snowflake has grown to hold 19% of the data warehousing industry, trailing just Amazon Redshift. Snowflake’s platform is intended to power applications with no performance, concurrency, or size constraints. Snowflake manages all infrastructure complexity, allowing developers to focus on innovation by leveraging the convenience and simplicity of PaaS-style application development. Snowflake has pushed various organisations across multiple industrial categories to develop smart goods, processes, and services.

Worldwide, there has been a high demand for Snowflake developers, and the explanations are pretty straightforward. A Snowflake developer is currently valued highly by organisations due to the key characteristics that Snowflake offers and its rising popularity quotient.

The architecture of Snowflake’s platform differs from that of practically every other traditional database system and cloud data warehouse. Snowflake’s computing and storage tiers are entirely independent of one another, and the platform’s two tiers are almost instantly elastic. Owing to this, we would like to draw your attention to certain best practices Snowflake account administrators should be doing.  

• Enable Auto-Suspend: Make sure that auto-suspend is enabled for all virtual warehouses. Auto-suspend will turn off your virtual warehouses after it has finished processing requests in this manner, which will stop the use of credit.

• Enable Auto-Resume: Enabling auto-resume is essential if you plan to use auto-suspend and establish suitable timeout limits because otherwise, users won’t be able to query the system. Run the following command to find any virtual warehouses that won’t resume when queried automatically:

• Configure Account Statement Timeouts: To automatically halt queries that are taking too long to execute owing to a user mistake or a frozen cluster, use the STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS and STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS parameters. For lengthy queries, alter the warehouse, account, session, and user timeout-level statements in accordance with your data plan.

• Modifying the SnowSQL command line prompt: You may change your SnowSQL command line prompt to provide similar visual feedback on your current context using this Pro Tip. Simply follow these steps:
  • Navigate to your machine’s SnowSQL folder. On a Mac or Linux, that folder is called /.snowsql/. On Windows, this folder is known as %USERPROFILE%.snowsql.
  • In a text editor, open the config file.
  • Locate the [options] section.
  • Insert the following line: prompt_format=”[#FF0000][role]#[#00FF00][database].[schema][#2BB5E8]@[warehouse]>”
  • Launch SnowSQL after saving the file.

• Administering Your Scripts: 

• • As soon as you begin working on a sheet, rename it. You can bet you’ll forget about it later and wind up with a lot of worksheet XXX to sort through.
  • If you finish a worksheet and no longer require the questions, delete the sheet immediately by selecting the option on the control ellipsis in the Context area.
  • Always include a comment header section at the beginning of your worksheet with some query specifics so that you can quickly see what the queries do when you open the worksheet. At the very least, I include the author, a query explanation, and a section for version history.
  • To securely share worksheets with team members, use a separate file or content repository.

• Backups and business continuity: Every data-driven enterprise must do regular database backups. With Snowflake’s Time Travel functionality, users can retrieve historical data from up to 90 days ago. When all other options have failed, Snowflake offers the Fail-safe data recovery service for more serious situations (such as a system breakdown or data breach).

Discover the future of data analytics with our Snowflake certification training, as you delve into the world of cloud-native data warehousing, data sharing, and advanced analytics capabilities.

Additionally, Snowflake assists firms in increasing the accessibility and accuracy of their information. Users can run numerous copies of the data warehouse across various zones, regions, or cloud providers thanks to Snowflake’s database replication.

• Data privacy: Different levels of access to sensitive information may be needed by various persons, groups, or departments within an organisation. Data masking has become more popular as a result. The Dynamic Data Masking function of Snowflake aids in protecting the privacy of sensitive data stored in your data warehouse. Data privacy officers can create policies with Dynamic Data Masking that immediately apply to all the files in your Snowflake data warehouse, and then modify these policies as your needs change.

To conclude, Snowflake is a well-known and user-friendly technology for efficient, quick, and flexible data storage, processing, and analysis.

Snowflake developers are in high demand, and the world is looking for the best Snowflake resources. The facts provided above demonstrate the competence and accountability that is desired in any Snowflake developer. Roles, responsibilities, skills, and remuneration may differ depending on the resources’ level of experience and expertise. The parameters may become more challenging and rewarding as the experience level increases.

Even various locations may have a unique set of criteria for evaluating and hiring a Snowflake developer. Whatever path you take, a career in Snowflake development will undoubtedly be fruitful!