Introduction:

 

I have been working with Snowflake since the beginning of 2018 and it has been one of the most enjoyable and scalable data solutions I have encountered in my 27+ year career as a data engineer, data architect, data entrepreneur, and data thought leader. It is an extremely powerful platform (with nearly unlimited scalability, limited only by Snowflake’s allocation of Compute within an Availability Zone) that requires responsible usage.

In the past 3 years, I’ve analyzed more than 100 Snowflake accounts and found that about 90% of them were not completely optimized for cloud data costs. That’s why my team and I are thrilled to introduce Snoptimizer, the first automated Snowflake cost optimization service.

One of the reasons why 90% of those accounts did not have resource monitors or regular optimizations is that Snowflake is initially cost-effective and typically provides significant savings, especially for on-prem migrations that we have completed. However, companies that do not optimize their Data Cloud Costs are missing out on big opportunities! That’s why we created Snoptimizer, and I’m also sharing my top 6 Snowflake cost and risk optimizations below. Hope you find them helpful!

 

Part 1: My Best Practices for Optimizing Snowflake Costs and Reducing Cost Risks:

 

Best Practice #1 – Resource Monitors.

One of the initial features of Snoptimizer is the automation of daily Resource Monitors at a warehouse level, which is based on the Snowflake Metadata database history and warehouse and Resource Monitor settings. This is set up immediately following the purchase of Snoptimizer.

By doing this, both cost risk and guardrails for all warehouse computing are reduced. Snoptimizer utilizes Snowflake Metadata and warehouse/Resource Monitor settings to automatically monitor resources daily at the warehouse level. This helps limit risks and ensures that constraints are not exceeded.

 

Best Practice #2 – Auto Suspend Setting Optimization.

Snoptimizer automates another optimization by analyzing the workloads in the Warehouse and making changes to the Auto Suspend settings. Depending on the workload, Snoptimizer can also automate additional cost savings for you.

 

Best Practice #3 – Monitoring Cloud Services Consumption Optimization

Snoptimizer analyzes your Snowflake Account’s Cloud Services consumption to quickly identify opportunities for cost savings. We thoroughly review usage and billing details for each service to ensure that only what is necessary is provisioned, reducing waste and minimizing costs. Optimizing Cloud Services is one of the most effective ways to lower your Snowflake spending while still meeting your data and compute demands.

 

Best Practice #4 – Regular Monitoring of Storage Usage Across your Entire Snowflake Account

At Snoptimizer, our goal is to help you save on Storage costs. We start by reviewing your Storage History for the past 60 days to identify any settings that may be causing you to overpay. We commonly find that charges related to Time Travel and/or Snowflake Stages are unnecessary and can be avoided.

At Snoptimizer, we can help you make the most of your storage space. Our service optimizes your settings based on your actual usage, so you’re only paying for what you need. By analyzing 60 days of storage history, we’re able to find ways to reduce costs by up to 25%, all without sacrificing performance or features.

 

Best Practice #5 – Daily Monitoring of Warehouse Compute.

Besides just adding Resource Monitors that suspend Warehouses we also provide daily monitoring of Snowflake Warehouse consumption reporting daily spikes and anomalies or changes in rolling averages. Most accounts we come across do not have regular monitoring of warehouse usage on regular proactive settings.

 

Best Practice #6 – Regular Monitoring of New Snowflake Services.

Besides monitoring compute warehouses, Snoptimizer also immediately starts monitoring consumption on all existing and new Cloud Services (private preview and after) incurring costs from Automatic Clustering to Search Optimization to Materialized Views and all existing and new costs. This huge benefit automates Snoptimizer. We are ALWAYS optimizing your cost consumption and reducing cost risk! We are always there for you!

 

Part 2: Try Snoptimizer today

 

At Snoptimizer, we offer Snowflake users a one-of-a-kind tool to enhance their Snowflake accounts’ cost efficiency, performance, and security.

 

Our tool offers a dependable and regular daily analysis of your Snowflake account optimization and rightsizing, ensuring maximum efficiency.

Try Snoptimizer today. Sign up and schedule a personal demo with us!

 

Conclusion:

 

After reading this article, we hope you have a better understanding of the best practices for optimizing Snowflake costs and reducing cost risks. These practices include using resource monitors, optimizing auto-suspend settings, monitoring cloud service consumption, regularly monitoring storage usage, daily monitoring of warehouse computing, and keeping track of new Snowflake services.

We encourage you to try out our automated Snowflake optimization tool for better cost, security, and performance efficiency.

Try Snoptimizer today! Sign up and schedule a personal demo with us!