ARA-C01 Question 3
Single answer1.1 Design a Snowflake account and database strategy, based on business requirements.A global retailer is designing its Snowflake deployment for three business units: North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Each business unit has its own data engineering team, separate billing ownership, and region-specific regulatory requirements. Corporate leadership also wants a centralized analytics layer for global reporting, while minimizing operational overhead and avoiding unnecessary data movement. The company expects frequent schema changes in source systems and wants each business unit to manage its own development lifecycle independently. Which design approach best meets these requirements?
- A
Create a single Snowflake account with one shared database for all business units, and use schemas plus role-based access control to isolate each region's objects and workloads.
- B
Create separate Snowflake accounts for each business unit in the required cloud regions, allow each unit to manage its own databases and lifecycle, and share curated data to a centralized analytics account using Secure Data Sharing or replication features as needed.
- C
Create one Snowflake account per business unit, but keep all databases for every region in a single primary account and expose them to the other accounts through database roles only.
- D
Create separate databases for each business unit inside one Snowflake account, then use virtual warehouses to satisfy regional regulatory requirements and chargeback reporting.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
For Snowflake account and database strategy, architects should align design boundaries with business ownership, regulatory constraints, operational autonomy, and data-sharing patterns. When business units require separate billing ownership, independent administration, and deployment in different regions, separate Snowflake accounts are typically the most appropriate boundary. Databases and schemas are useful for organizing objects within an account, but they do not provide the same level of administrative and regional separation.
A centralized analytics layer can still be achieved without heavy ETL duplication. Snowflake Secure Data Sharing is the preferred mechanism for near real-time sharing without copying data when accounts are compatible for sharing. For broader cross-region or business continuity use cases, Snowflake replication/failover features can support synchronized copies where needed. This pattern allows decentralized data ownership with centralized consumption.
This reflects Snowflake best practices documented around multi-account strategies, data sharing, organization-level governance, and region/account deployment decisions: use accounts when you need stronger isolation, separate administration, cost ownership, or regional deployment; use databases/schemas when the need is primarily logical organization within a shared administrative boundary.
- A. Incorrect.
This approach provides logical isolation through schemas and roles, but it does not best satisfy the stated requirements for separate billing ownership, region-specific regulatory constraints, and independent lifecycle management at the account boundary. A single account can support object isolation, but account-level separation is typically preferred when business units need stronger administrative autonomy, clearer cost ownership, and deployment into different cloud regions. It also creates more coordination overhead when multiple teams independently evolve environments within one account.
- B. Correct.
This is the best answer. Separate accounts allow each business unit to operate independently, including its own RBAC administration, warehouses, resource monitors, and release processes. Placing accounts in the required regions supports data residency and regulatory needs. A centralized analytics account can consume curated datasets using Secure Data Sharing when accounts are in the same region/cloud, or use replication and related cross-region/cross-cloud capabilities when consolidation across regions is required. This approach aligns with Snowflake best practices for organizational isolation, regional compliance, and centralized consumption with minimal unnecessary data movement.
- C. Incorrect.
This option mixes account separation with centralized database ownership in a way that undermines the requirement for each business unit to manage its own lifecycle independently. Database roles help with access delegation inside and across shared databases, but they do not solve the need for regional deployment, separate billing ownership, or decentralized administration of data platforms. Keeping all regional databases in one primary account also creates a governance and operational bottleneck.
- D. Incorrect.
Separate databases and warehouses within one account can help with workload and some cost attribution, but warehouses do not address regional regulatory requirements because data residency is determined by where the Snowflake account is deployed, not by warehouse configuration. This option also falls short on separate billing ownership and strong business-unit autonomy. It is a common misconception that warehouse isolation can substitute for account or regional isolation.