Advanced Data Sharing in Snowflake

Snowflake's data sharing capabilities enable secure, real-time data exchange across organizations without data movement or copying.

Data Sharing Models

Direct Sharing

Direct sharing allows providers to share data with specific consumers:

-- Create a share object
CREATE SHARE customer_share;

-- Grant usage on database objects
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE analytics_db TO SHARE customer_share;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA shared_schema TO SHARE customer_share;
GRANT SELECT ON TABLE customer_insights TO SHARE customer_share;

-- Add consumers to the share
ALTER SHARE customer_share ADD ACCOUNTS = ('consumer_account_1', 'consumer_account_2');

-- Consumers create database from share
CREATE DATABASE customer_data FROM SHARE provider_account.customer_share;

Reader Accounts

Reader accounts allow sharing with organizations that don't have Snowflake:

-- Create reader account for non-Snowflake consumers
CREATE READER ACCOUNT reader_org
  COMMENT = 'Reader account for external partner';

-- Share data with reader account
ALTER SHARE partner_share ADD ACCOUNTS = ('reader_account_id');

Data Marketplace

The Snowflake Marketplace provides a platform for sharing data products:

-- Browse marketplace listings
LISTING DIRECTORY SNOWFLAKE.MARKETPLACE;

-- Access marketplace data
CREATE DATABASE weather_data FROM SHARE weather_provider.weather_daily;

-- Query marketplace data
SELECT * FROM weather_data.weather.daily_forecast
WHERE location = 'New York'
  AND forecast_date >= CURRENT_DATE();

Creating Marketplace Listings

-- Create a listing for marketplace
CREATE OR REPLACE LISTING my_data_product
  TITLE = 'Industry Analytics Dataset'
  DESCRIPTION = 'Comprehensive industry analysis data'
  PUBLIC = TRUE
  BUSINESS_RADIUS = 'Region';

-- Grant access to listing
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE my_db TO LISTING my_data_product;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA my_schema TO LISTING my_data_product;

Private Data Exchange

Setting Up a Private Exchange

-- Create a private exchange
CREATE DATA EXCHANGE private_exchange
  COMMENT = 'Internal data exchange for business units';

-- Add accounts to exchange
ALTER DATA EXCHANGE private_exchange ADD ACCOUNTS = (
  'sales_account_id',
  'marketing_account_id',
  'finance_account_id'
);

-- Share data through exchange
CREATE SHARE cross_analytics_share;
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE analytics_db TO SHARE cross_analytics_share;
ALTER DATA EXCHANGE private_exchange ADD SHARES = ('cross_analytics_share');

Exchange Governance

-- Monitor exchange activity
SELECT * FROM TABLE(INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SHARE_USAGE_HISTORY(
  START_TIME => DATEADD('day', -7, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP())
));

-- Review shared objects
SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SHARES
WHERE CREATED_ON >= DATEADD('day', -30, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP());

Advanced Sharing Patterns

Cross-Region Sharing

-- Enable cross-region sharing
ALTER ACCOUNT SET ENABLE_CROSS_REGION_DATA_SHARING = TRUE;

-- Share across regions
CREATE SHARE global_metrics_share;
ALTER SHARE global_metrics_share ADD ACCOUNTS = ('us_east_account', 'eu_west_account');

Data Sharing with Tag-Based Access Control

-- Tag objects for sharing policies
ALTER TABLE customer_data SET TAG sharing_policy = 'external_share';

-- Use tags in share creation
CREATE SHARE tagged_share;
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE analytics_db TO SHARE tagged_share;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA shared_schema TO SHARE tagged_share
  WITH TAG (sharing_policy = 'external_share');

Dynamic Data Sharing

-- Share query results dynamically
CREATE SHARE dynamic_insights_share;
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE analytics_db TO SHARE dynamic_insights_share;

-- Create shareable view with dynamic filtering
CREATE OR REPLACE SECURE VIEW shared_regional_data AS
SELECT *
FROM gold.sales_by_region
WHERE region = CURRENT_REGION();

GRANT SELECT ON VIEW shared_regional_data TO SHARE dynamic_insights_share;

Monitoring and Auditing

-- Monitor share usage
SELECT
  share_name,
  account_name,
  query_count,
  last_query_time
FROM TABLE(INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SHARE_USAGE_HISTORY(
  START_TIME => DATEADD('day', -30, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP())
));

-- Audit data access
SELECT
  query_id,
  query_text,
  user_name,
  start_time
FROM SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY
WHERE query_text LIKE '%FROM SHARE%'
  AND start_time >= DATEADD('day', -7, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP());

Best Practices