ARA-C01 Question 72
Single answerFeatures of the different Snowflake editionsA financial services company is designing a Snowflake architecture for regulated workloads. The security team requires periodic access reviews that can determine which users and roles have access to sensitive objects without building custom audit tables. They also want to classify and tag sensitive data at scale using built-in capabilities rather than a third-party tool. The company is currently on Standard Edition and wants to know the minimum edition upgrade needed to meet both requirements. Which Snowflake edition should the architect recommend?
- A
Remain on Standard Edition, because access review reporting and sensitive data classification are available in all editions
- B
Upgrade to Enterprise Edition, because Access History and governance capabilities such as tag-based classification features are available starting there
- C
Upgrade to Business Critical Edition, because object access review and data classification are only supported for regulated workloads in this edition
- D
Upgrade to Virtual Private Snowflake, because built-in governance and access review features are only available in isolated deployments
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
This scenario tests whether the candidate can map business and governance requirements to the correct Snowflake edition without over-architecting the solution. Snowflake editions differ significantly in available features. Standard Edition is the entry tier, while Enterprise Edition adds advanced capabilities including features used for governance, monitoring, and optimization. Access History is an Enterprise-level feature commonly used for audit and review processes to understand data access patterns. For sensitive data governance, Snowflake also provides built-in capabilities for discovering/classifying sensitive data and applying governance metadata such as tags, which are intended to reduce reliance on custom solutions. Business Critical adds enhanced security/compliance features, but architects should recommend it only when those specific controls are required. A key exam skill is identifying the minimum edition that satisfies the requirements while aligning to cost-conscious architecture decisions. Refer to Snowflake documentation on edition comparison, Access History, and data governance/classification features for the exact current feature availability by edition.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Standard Edition does not include all advanced governance and monitoring capabilities needed here. In particular, features commonly used for detailed access review, such as Access History, are not available in Standard Edition. A team staying on Standard would typically need more custom processes to approximate these controls.
- B. Correct.
Correct. Enterprise Edition is the minimum upgrade that satisfies both stated needs. Access History is an Enterprise feature and is commonly used for periodic reviews of who accessed which data objects. Snowflake governance capabilities used to classify and tag sensitive data at scale, including built-in data classification-related functionality, are also associated with higher editions beginning at Enterprise rather than Standard. Therefore, Enterprise is the minimum edition that addresses both requirements without unnecessary overprovisioning.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Business Critical Edition provides additional security and compliance capabilities, such as support for more stringent regulatory and data protection requirements, but it is not the minimum edition for the requirements in this scenario. The question asks for the minimum upgrade needed, and the access review plus data classification needs can already be met with Enterprise Edition.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Virtual Private Snowflake is not the minimum requirement for these governance use cases. VPS is intended for customers needing a dedicated Snowflake environment with stronger isolation. It does not represent the baseline edition needed simply to obtain Access History and built-in classification/tagging capabilities.