Snowflake Architecture and Editions

Snowflake Architecture

Emily Melhuish

Technical Curriculum Developer, Snowflake

Snowflake Functional Architecture

Screenshot 2026-05-12 at 11.11.36 am.png

1 * Snowflake Learning Material
Snowflake Architecture

The Problem With Traditional Databases

Two square boxes with relationship coupling storage and compute together

Snowflake Architecture

Three Layers: Storage

Rectangle with text: Storage

Snowflake Architecture

Three Layers: Compute

Two Rectangles with text: Storage and Compute

Snowflake Architecture

Three Layers: Cloud Services

Three Rectangles with text: Storage, Compute, and Cloud Services

Snowflake Architecture

Storage and Compute

Two square boxes with relationship decoupled: storage and compute

Snowflake Architecture

Shared Storage Layer

Three rectangles representing different warehouses with a shared storage layer rectangle

Snowflake Architecture

Snowflake Editions

Table from Snowflake

1 https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/intro-key-concepts https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/cost-understanding
Snowflake Architecture

Global Coverage

Global coverage of providers Snowflake can use and their data centres (Last Updated: April 2026)

1 https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/intro-regions
Snowflake Architecture

Prepare for the SnowPro Core Certification

 

 

datacamp Snowflake Handshake.png

  • SnowPro Core Certification track

    • Snowflake Architecture (this course): University Platform Skills Badge
    • Snowflake Management, Governance & Collaboration
    • Data Pipeline Automation in Snowflake

  • Prerequisites

    • Familiarity with Snowflake and SQL
Snowflake Architecture

SnowPro® Core Certification (COF-C03)

 

COF_updated.png

  • Courses cover the main skills required

    • 1.0 Features & Architecture
    • 2.0 Account Management and Data Governance
    • 3.0 Data Loading, Unloading, and Connectivity
    • 4.0 Performance Optimization, Querying, and Transformation
    • 5.0 Data Collaboration

  • Get a 50$ discount code once you have completed the SnowPro Core track

Snowflake Architecture

Let's practice!

Snowflake Architecture

Preparing Video For Download...