ADA-C01 Question 441
Single answerConfigure cross-region and cross-cloud data sharingA Snowflake provider account in AWS us-east-1 needs to share a secure view with a consumer account that runs in Azure West Europe. The provider wants the consumer to query the shared data with minimal ongoing administration and without copying raw tables into the consumer account. Which action should the administrator take?
- A
Create a direct share from the AWS account to the Azure account and add the consumer account locator to the share.
- B
Use replication to copy the database to the consumer account, then grant the consumer access to the replicated database.
- C
Create a listing using Snowflake Secure Data Sharing/Marketplace capabilities so the consumer can access the data cross-cloud and cross-region.
- D
Unload the secure view results to external stage files in AWS S3 and have the consumer create an external table over those files from Azure.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Snowflake supports several sharing patterns, but they are not interchangeable. A standard direct share is appropriate when provider and consumer are in the same region. When the consumer is in a different region or cloud, Snowflake uses listings to facilitate cross-region and cross-cloud data sharing. This preserves governed access to shared database objects such as secure views while avoiding custom file export workflows. Replication is a separate capability used for database copies across regions/accounts and is not the preferred answer for a provider-consumer sharing use case where the goal is secure, low-overhead access rather than distributing copied datasets. This aligns with Snowflake documentation on Secure Data Sharing, listings, and cross-cloud/cross-region sharing best practices.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Direct shares using account locators are intended for accounts in the same region (and generally same cloud region context). They do not provide cross-cloud, cross-region sharing by simply adding a remote consumer locator. For consumers in a different cloud/region, the provider must use cross-region/cross-cloud sharing mechanisms based on listings rather than a standard direct share.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Database replication is for replicating databases between accounts/regions for business continuity, locality, or controlled distribution, but it is not the normal mechanism for provider-to-consumer secure data sharing across organizations. It also implies copying data to another account environment, which the scenario explicitly wants to avoid as an ongoing administrative pattern.
- C. Correct.
Correct. For a consumer in a different cloud and region, the provider should use a listing to enable cross-cloud and cross-region data sharing. This allows the consumer to access the provider's shared data without the provider manually copying raw tables into the consumer account. This is the recommended Snowflake approach for cross-region and cross-cloud secure sharing scenarios.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Unloading data to cloud storage and exposing it through external tables is a workaround, not Snowflake secure data sharing. It adds file-management overhead, weakens the simplicity of governed sharing, and does not meet the goal of minimal ongoing administration for a secure shared object like a secure view.