Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

What is an advantage of Snowflake over on-premise data warehouses (EDWs)?

1. Increased latency

2. Instant Scalability

3. Higher hardware costs

4. Dependency on data distribution

The correct answer is: Instant Scalability

Instant scalability is a significant advantage of Snowflake over traditional on-premise data warehouses. Snowflake’s architecture allows users to scale compute resources up or down rapidly and flexibly according to their workload requirements, without any downtime. This means that during high-demand periods, additional compute can be provisioned to handle increased workloads, and during quieter periods, resources can be scaled back to save costs. In contrast, on-premise data warehouses often require substantial upfront investment in hardware and infrastructure, and scaling typically involves long procurement cycles, installation, and configuration of additional hardware, leading to increased time and operational complexity. This inherent flexibility in scaling provides organizations with the agility to respond to changing data needs, improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The other choices imply disadvantages. Increased latency is typically associated with traditional setups where data transfer and processing times can be slower due to physical limitations. Higher hardware costs refer to the significant initial capital expenditures needed for on-premise systems compared to Snowflake's cloud-based, consumption-based pricing. Lastly, dependency on data distribution relates to the complexities of managing data partitions and distribution strategies in traditional environments, which can add to maintenance efforts and challenges.