COF-C03 Question 10
Single answerCompare and contrast the different Snowflake editionsA healthcare analytics company is moving PHI-regulated workloads to Snowflake. The security team requires support for customer-managed encryption keys and stronger business continuity objectives, including cross-region disaster recovery and a higher service level agreement than the standard offering. The company wants the lowest Snowflake edition that satisfies these requirements. Which Snowflake edition should the architect recommend?
- A
Standard Edition
- B
Enterprise Edition
- C
Business Critical Edition
- D
Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS)
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
This question tests practical edition selection based on business and regulatory requirements rather than rote memorization. In Snowflake, editions differ by security, governance, business continuity, and certain enterprise capabilities. For regulated workloads that require customer-managed encryption keys, Snowflake's Business Critical Edition is the key threshold because it supports Tri-Secret Secure. Business Critical also provides a higher SLA than Standard and Enterprise, making it the lowest edition that satisfies the combined requirements in this scenario. Virtual Private Snowflake is a separate deployment option for stronger environment isolation, but it is not required unless the organization specifically needs dedicated isolated infrastructure. Candidates should map requirements to the minimum edition that provides the needed capabilities, which is a common architecture and cost-optimization decision. This aligns with Snowflake documentation describing edition-based feature differences, especially around advanced security and compliance capabilities available in Business Critical.
- A. Incorrect.
Standard Edition is incorrect because it does not provide the advanced security and compliance capabilities required here, such as Tri-Secret Secure with customer-managed keys. It also does not meet the scenario's need for the higher level of protection and continuity associated with Snowflake's top commercial editions.
- B. Incorrect.
Enterprise Edition is incorrect because, while it adds enterprise-focused capabilities beyond Standard, it does not include Business Critical-only security features such as Tri-Secret Secure. A candidate might choose this option because Enterprise is often the default upgrade for larger organizations, but it does not satisfy the customer-managed key requirement in this scenario.
- C. Correct.
Business Critical Edition is correct because it is the lowest edition that supports enhanced security for highly regulated workloads, including Tri-Secret Secure, which enables the use of customer-managed keys in addition to Snowflake-managed encryption. It is also designed for organizations with stricter compliance, security, and business continuity requirements, and includes a higher SLA than lower editions. This makes it the appropriate minimum edition for PHI-regulated healthcare data with the stated requirements.
- D. Incorrect.
Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS) is incorrect because it is not the lowest edition that meets the requirements. VPS is an isolated Snowflake environment intended for organizations with very stringent isolation requirements, but the scenario does not state that dedicated isolated infrastructure is necessary. A candidate might over-select this because of the regulated healthcare context, but customer-managed keys and the higher SLA are already addressed by Business Critical.