Snowflake

Enterprise cloud data warehouse with native Iceberg catalog, automatic optimization, Snowpipe Streaming, UniForm interoperability, and full integration with Snowflake features

Key Features

85

Full vs Read-Only

Native Catalog Integration

Snowflake catalog (native) with full read/write capabilities. External catalogs (Glue, Open Table Catalog) accessible read-only via catalog integration objects

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100

Zero Maintenance

Enterprise Automatic Optimization

Auto-cluster & auto-compaction services: coalesce small Parquet files, rewrite manifests, merge delete files, update clustering metadata continuously

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75

Native Full, External None

Catalog-Dependent DML

INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE INTO fully ACID on Snowflake-catalog tables. Position-delete files, equality-delete in preview. External tables read-only

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100

Adaptive MoR + CoW

Intelligent Storage Management

DML writes merge-on-read delete files. Automatic Storage Optimization compacts files & merges delete files, switching to copy-on-write during clustering

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90

Real-time GA

Snowpipe Streaming Integration

Snowpipe Streaming & Storage Write API for real-time ingestion (GA). Streams & Tasks supported on Snowflake-catalog tables. No built-in CDC ingestion

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50

Parquet Only

Limited Format Support

Parquet only format support. Iceberg spec v2 for Snowflake-catalog tables; external reads work on v1 or v2. No v3 support yet

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100

Enterprise Features

Advanced Time Travel

Query snapshots with AT(SNAPSHOT => id) or AT(TIME => ts). Zero-Copy Clones work on Iceberg tables. External tables require explicit REFRESH

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100

Full RBAC

Enterprise Security & Governance

Complete Snowflake RBAC, column masking, row-access policies, tag-based masking. Query activity in ACCOUNT_USAGE & ACCESS_HISTORY. Customer-managed IAM

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95

External Engine Access

UniForm Interoperability

UniForm exposes Snowflake tables through Iceberg-compatible REST catalog so external engines (Spark, Trino) can read them. Cross-cloud support via External Volumes

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100

Search + Clustering

Advanced Enterprise Features

Search Optimization, micro-partition clustering, Zero-Copy Cloning, vectorized Parquet scanner with manifest pruning for high performance on Snowflake-catalog tables

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Snowflake Iceberg Feature Matrix

Comprehensive breakdown of Iceberg capabilities in Snowflake

Dimension	Support Level	Implementation Details	Availability
Catalog Types	PartialNative Full, External Read	Snowflake native catalog (full read/write) + external catalogs (read-only via integration)	GA
SQL Analytics	PartialCatalog Dependent	Native: full DDL/DML, transactions, Snowflake features; External: SELECT only	GA
DML Operations	PartialNative Only	INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/MERGE with ACID on native; position-deletes; equality-deletes preview	GA
Storage Strategy	FullAdaptive Auto	MoR writes + automatic CoW optimization; background clustering & compaction	GA
Streaming Support	FullSnowpipe GA	Snowpipe Streaming + Storage Write API (GA); Streams & Tasks on native tables	GA
Format Support	LimitedParquet v2 Only	Parquet only; spec v2 for native tables; v1/v2 read for external; no v3 support	GA
Time Travel	FullEnterprise Features	AT(SNAPSHOT/TIME) syntax; Zero-Copy Clones; external tables need REFRESH	GA
Schema Evolution	FullMetadata-only	ADD/DROP/RENAME columns, type widening, nullability changes; atomic snapshots	GA
Security & Governance	FullEnterprise RBAC	Complete RBAC, column/row masking, tag policies; ACCOUNT_USAGE audit	GA
Automatic Optimization	FullZero Maintenance	Auto-clustering, compaction, delete-file merging; continuous background optimization	GA
UniForm Interoperability	InnovativeExternal Engine Access	Exposes Snowflake tables via Iceberg REST catalog to Spark/Trino (read-only)	GA
Enterprise Features	FullAdvanced Capabilities	Search Optimization, micro-partitioning, Zero-Copy Clones, vectorized scanner	GA

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Use Cases

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Full-featured data warehouse with native Iceberg integration

• Modern data warehouse with zero maintenance optimization
• Enterprise environments requiring comprehensive RBAC and governance
• High-frequency update workloads with automatic clustering
• Multi-tenant deployments with fine-grained security

Real-time Analytics with Snowpipe

Streaming ingestion and change processing workflows

• Real-time data warehouse updates with Snowpipe Streaming
• Change data capture with Streams and Tasks
• High-throughput streaming analytics
• Near real-time dashboard and reporting

Multi-Engine Data Architecture

UniForm interoperability for diverse analytical tools

• Data sharing between Snowflake and external engines (Spark, Trino)
• Hybrid analytical architectures with multiple processing engines
• Cross-cloud and cross-region data access scenarios
• Open format data lake with Snowflake performance

Development and Testing Optimization

Zero-Copy Cloning for efficient development workflows

• Instant development and testing environments with clones
• Data science experimentation without storage costs
• Backup and recovery scenarios with time travel
• Reproducible analytics with snapshot isolation

Resources & Documentation

Official Documentation

Complete API reference and guides

Getting Started Guide

Quick start tutorials and examples

Apache Iceberg Tables Overview

Documentation

CREATE ICEBERG TABLE

Documentation

Manage Iceberg Tables

Documentation

Iceberg Storage Management

Documentation

Snowpipe Streaming with Iceberg

Documentation

Time Travel Documentation

Documentation

Access Control Privileges

Documentation

Apache Iceberg v3 Blog

Documentation