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Shared Data

On of the advantages of using Snowflake is the separation between compute and storage. Because these two are distinct within the Snwoflake DWH, there is the option to access data from a different Snowflake environment, free of cost.

Snowflake eliminates the need to copy or physically move the data. With Snowflake's data sharing functionality, one account (Active Ants) can grant live, read-only access to specific datasets for another account (clients of Active Ants) without transferring or duplicating the data.

Clients can query the data as if it exists locally, even though it is physically stored in Active Ants’s account. Since the data remains in one location, Active Ants incurs only the storage costs, making this approach significantly more efficient and scalable for cross-account collaboration.

There is one major drawback to this setup in that the client's Snowflake environment should also reside within Azure, in the Europe-West region.

For generic info about Data Sharing within Snowflake, see https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro

Creating Connection

To make use of this functionality, clients will need to request this access via their Account Manager. Clients will need to share 2 Snowflake identifiers with Active Ants:

  1. The account identifier (a combination of OrgName and AccountName)
  2. Their current account

The easiest way to retrieve these values is to log in to SnowSight. Then open a workspace and execute:

select CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_NAME(), CURRENT_ACCOUNT_NAME(), CURRENT_ACCOUNT();

This will return something like:

CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_NAME()CURRENT_ACCOUNT_NAME()CURRENT_ACCOUNT()
ASTUBFLN60812ES12345

These values need to be send to Active Ants to complete the access.

Only when Active Ants has completed the setup can the client continue with the next step: access the data.

Using shared data

After Active Ants has setup the shared data, the client will be able to use the data. See the screenshots below on how to use the new data.

  • Go to “Data Products” > “Private Sharing”
  • Click on the blue button “Get”
  • Optional: change the database name and/or role and click the "Get" button
  • All is ready to use the data
Data Sharing Data Sharing Data Sharing

Test the data share

Go to SnowSight, open a Worksheet and execute:

select * from AA_SHARE.PUBLIC.TESTVIEW;

You should see a number of results.