Billigence

Snowflake

Snowflake is a data platform built for the cloud. Snowflake delivers the performance, concurrency and simplicity needed to store and analyze an organization’s data in one location. Snowflake is your solution for data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and securely sharing and consuming shared data.

Features

• fast results by combining the advantages of two database architecture
• uses a central repository, like a shared-disk database
• offers near-zero management because it's a cloud-based
• the warehouse size can automatically adjust based on the demand
• Snowflake automatically manages failover and resource allocation
• Snowflake offers a user-friendly interface

Benefits

• offers advanced features that ensure optimal protection for your account
• simplified pricing experience based on a pay-per-use model

£0 a unit

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at michael.evans@billigence.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

511114548710819

Contact

Michael Evans
07951 391 823
michael.evans@billigence.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Snowflake is offered in multiple editions, which customer can choose from. Access to features, support and any constraints are driven by the Edition type. ; ; For more information please refer to: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/intro-editions
• System requirements:
  • Chrome 47 - Snowflake recommends using Google Chrome
  • Safari 9
  • Firefox 45
  • Opera 36
  • Edge 12

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Premier Support response time targets:; Sev 1: 1 hour; Sev 2: 2 business hours; Sev 3: 1 business day; Sev 4: 2 business days; ; Priority Support response time targets:; Sev 1: 15 minutes; Sev 2: 2 hours; Sev 3: 4 business hours; Sev 4: 1 business day; ; For more details, please refer to the below: ; https://www.snowflake.com/support/; https://www.snowflake.com/legal/support-policy-and-service-level-agreement/
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Onsite support
• Support levels: Premier Support is included in your contract.; ; Priority Support can be purchased in addition. Priority support services include Support Account Management.; ; For more details please refer to the below:; https://www.snowflake.com/support/
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: We can support by setting up a Snowflake account and initial objects, users and roles to get you started.; ; We also provide online and/or onsite Snowflake training.; ; Our team of certified experts can support you throughout the whole process, from providing best practices to resource augmentation to developing end-to-end solutions.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Data can be unloaded to flat files to one or multiple cloud providers storage services (AWS, Azure, GCP). This process will come at a cost, depending on data volume and the chosen cloud provider for your Snowflake account.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of a contract, customers can choose to extend it or, if choosing to end it they won't be able to access their accounts. ; Upon termination customers will have up to 30 calendar days to retrieve customer data.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Description of service interface: Web interface - Snowsight; Command line tool - SnowSQL
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: Through web browser ; Standard ODBC/JDBC connectors; Through any partner connectors
• Accessibility testing: NA
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The Snowflake SQL API is a REST API that you can use to access and update data in a Snowflake database.
• API documentation: No
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Customers can customise their package and services dependant on their needs.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Usage of resources defined by each customer. Customer can enable auto scaling of the virtual warehouses. There is possibility to use multi-cluster set- up. ; For more details, please refer to: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/warehouses-multicluster

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: There is Snowflake build-in monitoring tools. Which can help proactively optimize and manage query performance and prevent overrunning costs. ; There is also possibility to use third party monitoring tools.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Snowflake

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: N Snowflake, all data at rest is always encrypted and encrypted with TLS in transit. Snowflake also decrypts data when data is transformed or operated on in a table, and then re-encrypts the data when the transformations and operations are complete. ; ; For more information please refer to: ; https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/security-encryption-end-to-end
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Manual CSV Upload; You can manually download from Snowflake and load data into Google Sheets, ideally for one-off use cases. You can do this by writing a simple query in the Snowflake console and downloading the results in CSV format. Then, upload the CSV file to Google Sheets to start using it.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Monthly Availability Percentage for Snowflake Service is 99.9.%. ; ; Complex approach available at: ; https://www.snowflake.com/legal/support-policy-and-service-level-agreement/
• Approach to resilience: Snowflake leverages the cloud to ensure redundancy and transparent failure recovery, whether from failure of a single component or even of multiple availability zones. This resiliency is built into the Snowflake service and is available out of the box without setup or management.
• Outage reporting: A Public Dashboard - https://status.snowflake.com/

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Snowflake support personnel can only obtain access to customer accounts once customers grant explicit access and permissions to their account. This access is logged and is temporary, expiring within 24 hours or upon manual termination by the customer.; ; Customers control the level of access granted to the support personnel and can review logs as needed to determine what was performed by the support personnel.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: A-Ling
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 5/20/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Certification covers entire production environment of the Snowflake service.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: A-Ling
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 5/19/2022
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: The PCI DSS certification covers the entire production environment of the Snowflake service.
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • FedRAMP Moderate
  • HITRUST
  • SOC 1 Type II
  • SOC 2 Type II
  • IRAP (Protected)

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: Please refer to Snowflake’s compliance website for security governance standards/certifications: https://www.snowflake.com/snowflakes-security-compliance-reports/
• Information security policies and processes: See Security Addendum which describes security processes in place. These processes are put in place based on documented policies and procedures. https://www.snowflake.com/legal/security-addendum/; ; All employees are required to read and acknowledge policies and procedures (including the Information Security Policy) as part of their annual training.; ; Logging, monitoring, and alerting are in place for security processes to help ensure policies are followed. Periodic information security and governance audits also occur multiple times per year.; ; Policies are managed by the Security Compliance team and require approvals from leadership at least annually. The Security Compliance team reports to the VP of Security who reports to the CFO.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: Production system and software changes are reviewed, tested, and approved prior to deployment to production to ensure the change meets the authorization, design, acquisition, implementation, configuration, and testing requirements to ensure security, availability and confidentiality as outlined in the Secure Development Life Cycle at Snowflake Policy.; ; For more details on this process please view compliance reports such as the SOC 2 on this website: https://www.snowflake.com/snowflakes-security-compliance-reports/
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Regular internal and external vulnerability scans are automatically performed weekly using an up-to-date vulnerability database.; ; Scans that detect vulnerabilities meeting Snowflake-defined risk criteria automatically trigger notifications to Security personnel and are remediated according to the documented policy.; ; ● Alerts are evaluated by Security personnel.; ● Critical, High and Medium vulnerabilities are documented and tracked to closure.; ● Critical vulnerabilities are reported to the Security Committee.; ; Patches are deployed to the service based on internal policies and procedures.; ; Information regarding potential threats are also gathered based on industry threat and security alerts from US-CERT, CISA, OWASP, CIS, vendor-supplied notifications and others.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Network activity within Snowflake infrastructure, as well as access to Snowflake, is monitored, logged, and automatically analyzed for suspicious activity to ensure continued system security, integrity, and; availability. Included within this monitoring is the implementation of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for systems and networks. Snowflake uses a dedicated Snowflake database, the Snowflake Security Analytics Warehouse (SAW) as its security information and event management (SIEM) tool.; ; Tickets are automatically generated and reviewed by Security personnel.; ; Incidents are responded to based on criticality rating and the internal Security Incident Response Process.
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: The Snowflake Security Incident Process consists of three major phases, Detect, Analyze, and Respond, which are documented in detail in the Snowflake Incident Process Policy. Snowflake records, investigates, and resolves production problems reported by internal and external Snowflake users in a timely manner. All incidents that are classified as high impact must go through a post-mortem process to identify changes to policies, procedures, best practices, and documentation to improve the prevention, detection, containment, analysis of or response to applicable incidents.; ; Incidents are reported/communicated to customers and/or other parties according to contracts, laws, and regulations.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Equal opportunity

  Fighting climate change

  We endeavour to do our best in fighting climate change and have made an active effort to switch our delivery to remote working vs onsite delivery where possible, thus reducing our travel & impact on the environment.

  Equal opportunity

  Being an equal opportunity employer cultivates a workplace where diversity is embraced and valued. It fosters inclusivity, ensuring all individuals have fair opportunities for employment and advancement regardless of race, gender, age, religion, or background. By prioritizing diversity and inclusion, organizations harness the full spectrum of human potential, driving innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. Embracing equality in employment not only reflects ethical responsibility but also enriches company culture, improves employee morale, and enhances productivity. Ultimately, as a social value, being an equal opportunity employer promotes fairness, equity, and respect, contributing to a more just and harmonious society.

Pricing

• Price: £0 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Free Snowflake trial which includes $400 worth of free usage for 30 days use.
• Link to free trial: https://signup.snowflake.com/

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at michael.evans@billigence.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.