Unleashing the Power of Data Sharing: Nexla’s Data API for Seamless Integration with SaaS, ISV, and Data Providers Beyond Snowflake

We recently caught up with a Snowflake customer who is a SaaS provider to discuss the challenges of supporting his customer data needs. Customers who are also Snowflake customers and users can already utilize Snowflake’s data share capability without worrying about integration, costs, and support, but many customers are not currently on Snowflake. This has led to some common challenges of sharing data with those non-Snowflake customers and Nexla is helping overcome these challenges through simple data sharing, visibility, and seamless data integration.

The Challenge: Data Sharing Beyond Snowflake

While Snowflake does offer read-only accounts for non-Snowflake customers (called Snowflake reader accounts), there are several challenges that Snowflake reader accounts pose for providers. Here are three common challenges:

Cost Burden on Providers: When sharing data through a Snowflake reader account, the provider incurs all the costs associated with all reader accounts. Furthermore, reader accounts can consume an unlimited number of credits each month, which will be charged to the provider account.

Unpredictable Operational and Support Costs: Since a reader account does not have a licensing agreement with Snowflake, Snowflake support services are not available to the general users in the account. Providers will need to act as the conduit, fielding questions and requests from users in the account, opening a Snowflake Support ticket through the normal channels, and communicating back to customers and partners when answers are available. Furthermore, if you have a large number of customers, you will also need to factor in how to manage and update users in each reader’s account due to personnel changes. These ongoing support and operational tasks can divert your team’s focus from core business activities and impact overall efficiency, especially when you have a large or fast-growing number of customers and partners to support.

Lack of Visibility into Usage to Drive Product Roadmap Directions: Using a shared reader account limits the provider’s visibility into what specific data their customers and partners care about the most. Because reader account users are not Snowflake customers, the most common method is to perform a data dump, then process the data in their system of choice. The lack of visibility is a lost opportunity to understand their customers’ needs that could help drive product roadmap directions that impact the provider’s revenue.

Data Sharing Solution: Nexla’s Data APIs

Nexla’s all-in-one converged automated data engineering platform offers a scalable and secure way to share data with your customers or partners who do not use Snowflake. One of our platform capabilities is to output data as an API in our data flow, which can provide the perfect solution for SaaS, ISVs, and data providers who need to support a large customer and partner base that does not use Snowflake while managing costs, support, and visibility. Here are several advantages of providing your customer access to their data via APIs:

Seamless Integration: Data APIs are designed to be developer-friendly, offering a standardized way for your customers to integrate your data into their applications and systems.

Scalability and Performance: Data APIs are built to handle large volumes of requests and scale seamlessly as your customer base grows. This ensures consistent performance even during peak usage periods, providing a smooth user experience for your customers.

Data Security and Control: Data APIs offer a secure way to share data, allowing you to control access through authentication and authorization mechanisms. You can define user roles and permissions, ensuring that customers only access the data they are entitled to see. This level of control enhances data security and mitigates the risk of unauthorized data exposure.

Insights into Customer Usage: Data APIs provide you with valuable insights into how your customers are utilizing your data. By monitoring API usage patterns and data access, you can gain a deeper understanding of customer preferences and behavior. This data-driven feedback enables you to tailor your product offerings and improve customer satisfaction, enhancing the overall value of your service.

Reduced Support Efforts: Providing data as an API can significantly reduce support efforts for your team. APIs offer a standardized interface, which means fewer integration issues and easier troubleshooting for your customers. This results in fewer support tickets and a more streamlined support process for your organization.

In summary, while Snowflake’s reader account can be a good option for certain data sharing scenarios, Nexla’s data APIs offer a powerful alternative that addresses these challenges, providing a seamless, secure, and scalable solution for data sharing with customers who do not use Snowflake. Check out this video to see how Nexla empowers you and your organization to offer data as an API to your customers and support seamless scalability.

 

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