ARA-C01 Question 133
Single answerSharing within a cloud regionA company has a Snowflake account in AWS us-east-1 and needs to provide near real-time access to a subset of its analytics tables to two external business partners. Both partners also use Snowflake and have accounts in the same cloud region. The company wants to avoid copying data, minimize operational overhead, and ensure each partner can query only the shared objects intended for them. Which approach best meets these requirements?
- A
Create a reader account for each partner and load daily extracts into separate databases for them.
- B
Create a direct share for each partner account and grant access to the required database objects through those shares.
- C
Use database replication to copy the source database into each partner's Snowflake account within the region.
- D
Unload the required tables to an internal stage and let each partner create external tables over the staged files.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The best answer is to use direct secure data sharing with a separate share for each partner account. Snowflake secure data sharing is designed specifically for sharing live data across Snowflake accounts without copying or moving the underlying storage. Within the same cloud region, this is the most efficient and lowest-overhead method for providing near real-time access to selected database objects. Using separate shares also supports least-privilege design, since each consumer can be granted only the objects intended for that partner. Reader accounts are useful only when the consumer does not have a Snowflake account. Replication and unload-based patterns introduce unnecessary copies and management overhead. This aligns with Snowflake best practices for same-region sharing and secure data sharing documentation, which emphasizes no-data-copy sharing, account-level consumers, and object-level control through shares.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Reader accounts are intended for consumers that do not already have their own Snowflake account. In this scenario, both partners already use Snowflake in the same region, so direct sharing is the simpler and more appropriate option. Also, loading daily extracts introduces data copies and latency, which conflicts with the requirement for near real-time access and minimal operational overhead.
- B. Correct.
Correct. Direct secure data sharing within the same cloud region allows the provider to share specific database objects with other Snowflake accounts without copying the underlying data. Each partner can receive its own share so access can be controlled independently. This approach provides near real-time visibility into the shared data and minimizes operational effort because the provider manages grants on shared objects rather than creating duplicate datasets.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Database replication is not the right mechanism for sharing a subset of objects with external partner accounts in the same region. Replication is used for business continuity, disaster recovery, and cross-region or cross-account database copies under specific scenarios, but it creates additional copies and operational complexity. The requirement explicitly calls for avoiding copied data.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Unloading data to a stage and exposing it through external tables adds unnecessary data movement, storage management, and refresh considerations. It also does not provide the simplicity and immediacy of Snowflake secure data sharing. This option would increase overhead and create copies of the data, which the company wants to avoid.