How do Snowflake data providers share data that resides in different databases?

Snowflake's Secure Data Sharing enables data providers to share live, read-only data with consumers without creating copies. The primary mechanism for securely exposing this data is through secure views. A provider creates a share and grants it privileges on specific database objects. By using a secure view, the provider can control exactly which columns and rows are visible to the consumer. Crucially, secure views hide the underlying query logic and base table information from the consumer, providing a robust layer of security and abstraction. This makes them the standard and recommended method for sharing data that resides in a provider's database.

A. External tables: External tables are used to query data stored in external cloud storage (e.g., S3, Azure Blob) as if it were in Snowflake, not for sharing data between Snowflake accounts.
C. Materialized views: Materialized views are primarily a performance optimization feature that pre-computes query results. While they can be included in a share, secure views are the specific tool designed for secure data abstraction in sharing scenarios.
D. User-Defined Functions (UDFs): UDFs are used to share custom logic or code, not the underlying datasets (tables/views) themselves. A provider shares data via tables or views, and can optionally share UDFs. ---

1. Snowflake Documentation: Introduction to Secure Data Sharing

Reference: "Using secure objects

particularly secure views and secure UDFs

you can share data with consumers while preventing them from seeing the definitions of the objects."

Source: Snowflake Inc.

"Introduction to Secure Data Sharing"

https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-intro.

2. Snowflake Documentation: Secure Views

Reference: Under the section "Data Sharing and Secure Views"

it states: "When you share a secure view

the view definition is not exposed to the data sharing consumer. This is useful if you want to hide the complexities of the underlying table(s) and view definition

or for security reasons."

Source: Snowflake Inc.

"Working with Secure Views"

https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/views-secure#data-sharing-and-secure-views.

3. Snowflake Documentation: Working as a Data Provider

Reference: Step 2 of the provider workflow is: "Determine which existing database objects (tables

secure views

and secure UDFs) you wish to share." This explicitly lists secure views as a primary object type for sharing.

Source: Snowflake Inc.

"Working as a Data Provider"

https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-sharing-providers.