Why is Snowflake so expensive

Post by frankbinette » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC

flyinglizard wrote: post #46

Where does all this data go? It's processed and then what? Sent to decision makers? Used to run automated processes? I'm genuinely curious and would appreciate anyone who could show a real life example of this kind of pipeline where data is accumulated, then processed, then turned into revenue at the other end. I've implemented systems that do this but my experience is that accumulating data is (too) easy, processing…

Post by frankbinette » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:07 PM UTC

lysecret wrote: post #66

flyinglizard wrote: post #46

Where does all this data go? It's processed and then what? Sent to decision makers? Used to run automated processes? I'm genuinely curious and would appreciate anyone who could show a real life example of this kind of pipeline where data is accumulated, then processed, then turned into revenue at the other end. I've implemented systems that do this but my experience is that accumulating data is (too) easy, processing…

Same experience. I think the most interesting and most public example of such a pipeline is Google/ building a search index. This is also where a lot of the methods originally came from. Nowadays a lot of this will be used to build recommendation systems / feature pipelines for ML.

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:10 PM UTC

joelthelion wrote: post #122

Croftengea wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was wondering the same thing. This sums up pretty good I guess: > The best way to describe Snowflake is that it is a brute force method to run complex queries without creating indexes. ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32554072 )

But why not create indexes? I mean, I understand why sometimes you're you don't want an index. But building an entire warehouse around the idea of "no indexes", really ?

Post by danielmarkbruce » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

polskibus wrote: post #52

Aulig wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like these companies haven't found the right value metric to price along. Ideally it should align with the value the customer receives.

Only competition can enforce this. The article ideally demonstrates the problems with monopolies and vendor lock-in.

Post by danielmarkbruce » Mon, Aug 22, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

smugma wrote: post #119

makk wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As the article so well puts it, every SaaS company has a vested financial interest "to leave optimization gremlins in." It depends on the time scale. A SaaS optimizing for, say, a 1-3 year financial return will see their interests through a different lens than one optimizing for a multi-decade return. Leaving optimization gremlins in isn't aligned with customers' interests in the long run, so the customers will eve…

"As an investor, I expect Snowflake to show amazing profitability and record-breaking revenue numbers. As an Engineer, if Snowflake continues on the current path of ignoring performance, I expect them to lose share to the open-source community or some other competitor, eventually walking down the path of Oracle and Teradata. Here are a few things I think they can do to stay relevant in five years."