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One stolen password can bring down an entire enterprise. The 2024 Snowflake breaches revealed how fragile weak access controls are, with 165 organizations and millions of users affected. The breaches were not the result of advanced attacks. They happened because stolen passwords went unchecked, and multi-factor authentication was missing. As businesses move more of their data to the cloud and centralize it on platforms like Snowflake, a critical question emerges: who should have access, and how do you manage it at scale without slowing the business or weakening security?

In this article, we’ll break down the Snowflake Role Hierarchy, explain why it matters, and share best practices for structuring roles that support security, compliance, and day-to-day operations.

What is Snowflake’s role hierarchy?

Snowflake’s role hierarchy is a structured framework that defines how permissions and access controls are organized within the platform. In Snowflake, access to data and operations is governed entirely by roles. Using the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model, you grant privileges to roles, and then assign users to those roles, simplifying administration, ensuring consistency, and making audit access easier. RBAC is generally recommended for production environments and enterprise-level governance.

The hierarchy operates on a parent-child relationship model where higher-level roles inherit privileges from subordinate roles, creating a tree-like structure. This structure provides granularity, clarity, and reusability, but it requires thoughtful planning to avoid sprawl or over-permissioned users.

Core components of Snowflake RBAC

• Roles: The fundamental building blocks that encapsulate specific privileges
• Privileges: Defined levels of access to securable objects (databases, schemas, tables)
• Users: Identities that can be assigned roles to access resources
• Securable Objects: Entities like databases, tables, views, and warehouses that require access control
• Role Inheritance: The mechanism allowing roles to inherit privileges from other roles

Understanding Snowflake's system-defined roles

Understanding the default role structure is crucial for building secure hierarchies:

ACCOUNTADMIN

• Root-level access to all account operations
• Can view and manage billing and credit data
• Should be tightly restricted to emergency use only
• Not a "superuser" - still requires explicit privileges for data access

SYSADMIN

• Full control over database objects and users
• Recommended parent for all custom roles
• Manages warehouses, databases, and schemas

SECURITYADMIN

• Manages user and role grants
• Controls role assignment and privilege distribution
• Essential for maintaining RBAC governance

Custom roles

• Created for specific teams or functions within an organization (e.g ANALYST_READ_ONLY, ETL_WRITER).

Best practices for designing a secure Snowflake role hierarchy

A well-structured role hierarchy minimizes risk, supports compliance, and makes onboarding/offboarding easier. Here’s how one should do it right:

1. Follow the Principle of Least Privilege

Grant only the minimum required permissions for each role to perform its function. Avoid blanket grants like GRANT ALL ON DATABASE.

Do this:

• Specific, targeted grants
• Avoid cascading access down the role tree unless absolutely needed
• Regularly audit roles to ensure they align with actual usage

GRANT SELECT ON TABLE SALES_DB.REPORTING.MONTHLY_REVENUE TO ROLE ANALYST_READ;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA SALES_DB.REPORTING TO ROLE ANALYST_READ;
GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE SALES_DB TO ROLE ANALYST_READ;

Not this:

• Overly broad permissions

GRANT ALL ON DATABASE SALES_DB TO ROLE ANALYST_READ;

Why does it matter?

Least privilege prevents accidental (or malicious) misuse of sensitive data. It also supports data governance and compliance with various regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.

2. Use a layered role design

Design your roles using a layered and modular approach, often structured like this:

• Functional Roles (what the user does):

CREATE ROLE ANALYST_READ;
CREATE ROLE ETL_WRITE;
CREATE ROLE DATA_SCIENTIST_ALL;

• Environment Roles (where the user operates)

CREATE ROLE DEV_READ_WRITE;
CREATE ROLE PROD_READ_ONLY;

Composite or Team Roles (Group users by department or team, assigning multiple functional/environment roles under one umbrella)

CREATE ROLE MARKETING_TEAM_ROLE → includes PROD_READ_ONLY + ANALYST_READ

3. Avoid granting privileges directly to users

Always assign privileges to roles and not users. Then, assign users to those roles.

Why it matters?

This keeps access transparent and auditable. If a user leaves or changes teams, simply revoke or change the role. There’s no need to hunt down granular permissions.

4. Establish consistent naming conventions

Enforce naming conventions as consistent role and object naming makes automation and governance far easier to scale.

Recommended Naming Pattern:

• Access Roles: {ENV}_{DATABASE}_{ACCESS_LEVEL} (e.g., PROD_SALES_READ)
• Functional Roles: {FUNCTION}_{TEAM} (e.g., DATA_ANALYST, ETL_ENGINEER)
• Service Roles: {SERVICE}_{PURPOSE}_ROLE (e.g., FIVETRAN_LOADER_ROLE)

5. Use separate roles for Administration vs. Operations

Split roles that manage infrastructure (e.g., warehouses, roles, users) from roles that access data.

• Admins: SYSADMIN, SECURITYADMIN‍
• Data teams: DATA_ENGINEER_ROLE, ANALYST_ROLE, etc.

Why it matters? This separation of duties limits the potential impact of security incidents and supports audit compliance. Administrators should not have access to sensitive data unless it's absolutely necessary for their role.

6. Secure the top-level roles

Roles like ACCOUNTADMIN and SECURITYADMIN should be assigned to the fewest people possible, protected with MFA, and monitored for any usage.

Implementation Checklist:

• Limit ACCOUNTADMIN to 2-3 emergency users maximum
• Enable MFA for all administrative accounts
• Set up monitoring and alerting for admin role usage
• Regular access reviews and privilege audits
• Document and justify all administrative access

Monitoring, auditing & compliance: keeping your Snowflake hierarchy healthy

Even the best-designed role trees can get messy over time. Here’s how to maintain security:

1. Regular access reviews

Implement quarterly access reviews to maintain security hygiene:

• Role Effectiveness Analysis: Identify unused or over-privileged roles
• User Access Validation: Verify users have appropriate role assignments
• Privilege Scope Review: Ensure roles maintain least privilege principles
• Compliance Mapping: Document role mappings to business functions

2. Logging and monitoring

Enable Access History and Login History in Snowflake to track activity and implement automation tools for role assignments during employee transitions.

3. Onboarding/offboarding automation

Implement automation tools or scripts to efficiently manage role assignments during employee transitions.

4. Object Tagging for enhanced security

Use object tagging to classify sensitive data and control access accordingly.

Measuring RBAC Success: Key Performance Indicators

1. Security Metrics

• Access Review Coverage: % of roles reviewed quarterly
• Privilege Violations: Number of excessive privilege grants identified
• Failed Authentication Attempts: Monitor for unauthorized access patterns
• Role Utilization Rate: % of active roles vs. total created roles

2. Operational Metrics

• User Onboarding Time: Average time to provision new user access
• Role Management Efficiency: Time to modify/update role permissions
• Audit Response Time: Speed of access review and remediation
• Automation Coverage: % of role operations automated vs. manual

3. Compliance Metrics

• SOC 2 Readiness: Role hierarchy documentation completeness
• GDPR/Data Privacy: Data access control effectiveness
• Industry Compliance: Sector-specific requirement adherence
• Change Management: Role modification approval and documentation

Future-Proofing Your RBAC Strategy

The way you manage access today will define how secure and scalable your Snowflake environment is tomorrow. The strength of Snowflake’s RBAC model lies in its flexibility, but that power comes with responsibility. As AI features mature, as multi-cloud deployments become the norm, and as regulators tighten expectations around data privacy, static role hierarchies quickly fall behind. A poorly structured role hierarchy can lead to data leaks, audit failures, higher operational costs, and stalled innovation.

At Snowstack, we specialize in building RBAC strategies that are not only secure today but ready for what’s next. Our team of Snowflake-first engineers has designed role models that scale across continents, safeguard sensitive data for regulated industries, and enable AI without exposing critical assets. We continuously monitor Snowflake’s roadmap and fold new security capabilities into your environment before they become business risks.

Don’t wait for the next breach to expose the cracks in your access controls. Let’s design an RBAC strategy that keeps you secure, compliant, and future-ready.

👉 Book a free RBAC assessment

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Manual clicks don’t scale. As Snowflake environments grow, managing them through the UI or ad-hoc scripts quickly leads to drift, blind spots, and compliance risks. What starts as a quick fix often becomes a challenge that slows delivery and exposes the business to security gaps.

Infrastructure as Code with Terraform solves these challenges by bringing software engineering discipline to Snowflake management. Using Terraform’s declarative language, engineers define the desired state of their Snowflake environment, track changes with version control, and apply them consistently across environments. Terraform communicates with Snowflake’s APIs through the official snowflakedb/snowflake provider, translating configuration into the SQL statements and API calls that keep your platform aligned and secure.

This guide provides a complete walkthrough of how to manage Snowflake with Terraform. From provisioning core objects like databases, warehouses, and schemas to building scalable role hierarchies and implementing advanced governance policies such as dynamic data masking.

Section 1: bootstrapping Terraform for secure Snowflake automation

The initial setup of the connection between Terraform and Snowflake is the most critical phase of the entire process. A secure and correctly configured foundation is paramount for reliable and safe automation. This section focuses on establishing this connection using production-oriented best practices, specifically tailored for non-interactive, automated workflows typical of CI/CD pipelines.

1.1 The principle of least privilege: the terraform service role

Terraform should not operate using a personal user account. Instead, a dedicated service user must be created specifically for Terraform automation. Before any Terraform code can be executed, a one-time manual bootstrapping process must be performed within the Snowflake UI or via SnowSQL. This involves using the ACCOUNTADMIN role to create the dedicated service user and a high-level role for Terraform's initial operations.

The following SQL statements will create a TERRAFORM_SVC service user and grant it the necessary

-- Use the highest-level role to create users and grant system roles
USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

-- Create a dedicated service user for Terraform
-- The RSA_PUBLIC_KEY will be set in the next step
CREATE USER TERRAFORM_SVC
	TYPE = SERVICE
  COMMENT = 'Service user for managing Snowflake infrastructure via Terraform.'
  RSA_PUBLIC_KEY = '<YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY_CONTENT_HERE>';

-- Grant the necessary system roles to the Terraform service user
GRANT ROLE SYSADMIN TO USER TERRAFORM_SVC;
GRANT ROLE SECURITYADMIN TO USER TERRAFORM_SVC;

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Granting SYSADMIN and SECURITYADMIN to the service user is a necessary starting point for the infrastructure management. The SYSADMIN role holds the privileges required to create and manage account-level objects like databases and warehouses. The SECURITYADMIN role is required for managing security principals, including users, roles, and grants.

1.2 Authentication: the key to automation

The choice of authentication method is important. The Snowflake provider supports several authentication mechanisms, including basic password, OAuth, and key-pair authentication. For any automated workflow, especially within a CI/CD context, key-pair authentication is the industry-standard and recommended approach.

A CI/CD pipeline, such as one running in GitHub Actions, is a non-interactive environment. Basic password authentication is a significant security risk and not recommended. This leaves key-pair authentication as the only method that is both highly secure, as it avoids transmitting passwords, and fully automatable.

The following table provides a comparative overview of the primary authentication methods available in the Snowflake provider, reinforcing the recommendation for key-pair authentication in production automation scenarios.

Table 1: Snowflake provider authentication methods

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To implement key-pair authentication, an RSA key pair must be generated. The following openssl commands will create a 2048-bit private key in the required PKCS#8 format and its corresponding public key:

Bash

# Navigate to a secure directory, such as ~/.ssh
cd ~/.ssh

# Generate an unencrypted 2048-bit RSA private key in PKCS#8 format
openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out snowflake_terraform_key.p8 -nocrypt

# Extract the public key from the private key
openssl rsa -in snowflake_terraform_key.p8 -pubout -out snowflake_terraform_key.pub

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After generating the keys, the content of the public key file (snowflake_terraform_key.pub), including the -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- and -----END PUBLIC KEY----- headers, must be copied and pasted into the ALTER USER statement from the previous step to associate it with the TERRAFORM_SVC user. For enhanced security, the private key itself can be encrypted with a passphrase. The Snowflake provider supports this by using the private_key_passphrase argument in the provider configuration.

1.3 Provider configuration: connecting Terraform to Snowflake

With the service user created and the key-pair generated, the final step is to configure the Snowflake provider in the Terraform project. This is typically done in a providers.tf file.

The foundational configuration requires defining the snowflakedb/snowflake provider and setting the connection parameters.

terraform {
  required_providers {
    snowflake = {
      source  = "snowflakedb/snowflake"
      version = ">= 2.8.0" // Best practice: pin to a major version to avoid breaking changes
    }
  }
}

provider "snowflake" {
  organization_name = var.snowflake_org_name
  account_name      = var.snowflake_account_name
  user              = var.snowflake_user         // e.g., "TERRAFORM_SVC"
  role              = "SYSADMIN"                 // Default role for the provider's operations
  authenticator     = "SNOWFLAKE_JWT"
  private_key       = var.snowflake_private_key
}

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It is critical that sensitive values, especially the private_key, are never hardcoded in configuration files. The recommended approach is to define them as input variables marked as sensitive = true and supply their values through secure mechanisms like environment variables (e.g., TF_VAR_snowflake_private_key) or integration with a secrets management tool like GitHub Secrets or AWS Secrets Manager.

A common source of initial connection failures is the incorrect identification of the organization_name and account_name. These values can be retrieved with certainty by executing the following SQL queries in the Snowflake UI: SELECT CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_NAME(); and SELECT CURRENT_ACCOUNT_NAME();. Providing these simple but effective commands can prevent significant user frustration.

For more mature IaC implementations that strictly adhere to the principle of least privilege, Terraform supports the use of aliased providers. This powerful pattern allows for the definition of multiple provider configurations within the same project, each assuming a different role. This mirrors Snowflake's own best practices, where object creation (SYSADMIN) is separated from security management (SECURITYADMIN).

The following example demonstrates how to configure aliased providers:

# Default provider uses SYSADMIN for object creation (e.g., databases, warehouses)
provider "snowflake" {
  alias             = "sysadmin"
  organization_name = var.snowflake_org_name
  account_name      = var.snowflake_account_name
  user              = var.snowflake_user
  private_key       = var.snowflake_private_key
  authenticator     = "SNOWFLAKE_JWT"
  role              = "SYSADMIN"
}

# Aliased provider for security-related objects (e.g., roles, users, grants)
provider "snowflake" {
  alias             = "securityadmin"
  organization_name = var.snowflake_org_name
  account_name      = var.snowflake_account_name
  user              = var.snowflake_user
  private_key       = var.snowflake_private_key
  authenticator     = "SNOWFLAKE_JWT"
  role              = "SECURITYADMIN"
}

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When using aliased providers, individual resource blocks must explicitly specify which provider to use via the provider meta-argument (e.g., provider = snowflake.securityadmin). This ensures that each resource is created with the minimum necessary privileges, enforcing a robust security posture directly within the code.

Section 2: provisioning core Snowflake infrastructure

Once the secure connection is bootstrapped, Terraform can be used to define and manage the fundamental building blocks of the Snowflake environment. This section provides code examples for creating databases, virtual warehouses, and schemas - the foundational components for any data workload.

2.1 Laying the foundation: databases

The database is the top-level container for schemas and tables in Snowflake. The snowflake_database resource is used to provision and manage these containers.

The following HCL example creates a primary database for analytics workloads, demonstrating the use of the aliased sysadmin provider and an optional parameter for data retention.

‍resource "snowflake_database" "analytics_db" {
  provider = snowflake.sysadmin // Explicitly use the sysadmin provider for object creation

  name    = "ANALYTICS"
  comment = "Primary database for analytics workloads managed by Terraform."

  // Optional: Configure Time Travel data retention period.
  // This setting can have cost implications.
  data_retention_time_in_days = 30
}

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A core strength of Terraform is its ability to manage dependencies implicitly through resource references. In this example, once the analytics_db resource is defined, other resources, such as schemas, can reference its attributes (e.g., snowflake_database.analytics_db.name).

2.2 Compute power: warehouses

Virtual warehouses are the compute engines in Snowflake, responsible for executing queries and data loading operations. FinOps makes a difference, especially once usage grows.The snowflake_warehouse resource provides comprehensive control over their configuration, enabling a balance between performance and cost.

This example defines a standard virtual warehouse for analytics and business intelligence tools, showcasing parameters for cost optimization and scalability.

resource "snowflake_warehouse" "analytics_wh" {
  provider = snowflake.sysadmin

  name    = "ANALYTICS_WH"
  comment = "Warehouse for the analytics team and BI tools."

  // Define the compute capacity of the warehouse.
  warehouse_size = "X-SMALL"

  // Cost-saving measures: suspend the warehouse when idle.
  auto_suspend = 60 // Suspend after 60 seconds of inactivity.
  auto_resume  = true

  // Optional: Configure for multi-cluster for higher concurrency.
  min_cluster_count = 1
  max_cluster_count = 4
  scaling_policy    = "ECONOMY" // Prioritize conserving credits over starting clusters quickly.
}

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The parameters in this resource directly impact both performance and billing. warehouse_size determines the raw compute power and credit consumption per second. auto_suspend is a critical cost-control feature, ensuring that credits are not consumed when the warehouse is idle. For workloads with high concurrency needs, the min_cluster_count, max_cluster_count, and scaling_policy parameters allow the warehouse to dynamically scale out to handle query queues, and then scale back in to conserve resources. Managing these settings via Terraform ensures that cost and performance policies are consistently applied and version-controlled.

2.3 Organizing your data: schemas

Schemas are logical groupings of database objects like tables and views within a database. The snowflake_schema resource is used to create and manage these organizational units.

The following HCL creates a RAW schema within the ANALYTICS database defined earlier.

resource "snowflake_schema" "raw_data" {
  provider = snowflake.sysadmin

  // Create an explicit dependency on the database resource.
  database = snowflake_database.analytics_db.name

  name    = "RAW"
  comment = "Schema for raw, unprocessed data ingested from source systems."
}

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It is important to note that when a new database is created in Snowflake, it automatically includes a default schema named PUBLIC. While this schema is created outside of Terraform's management, administrators should be aware of its existence. For environments that require strict access control, it is a common practice to immediately revoke all default privileges from the

PUBLIC schema to ensure it is not used inadvertently. Terraform can be used to manage this revocation if desired, but the schema itself will not be in the Terraform state unless explicitly imported.

Section 3: mastering access control with role hierarchies

Effective access control is a cornerstone of data governance and security. Snowflake's Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model is exceptionally powerful, particularly its support for role hierarchies. Managing this model via Terraform provides an auditable, version-controlled, and scalable approach to permissions management. This section details how to construct a robust RBAC framework using a best-practice model of functional and access roles. At scale, keeping this clean is less about writing the first version and more about maintaining standards over time, which is why Platform Team as a Service often owns RBAC and grants as the platform grows.

3.1 The building blocks: creating account roles

The foundation of the RBAC model is the creation of roles. A recommended pattern is to create two distinct types of roles:

• Functional roles: These roles represent a job function or a persona, such as DATA_ANALYST or DATA_ENGINEER. Users are granted these roles.
• Access roles: These roles represent a specific set of privileges on a specific set of objects, such as SALES_DB_READ_ONLY or RAW_SCHEMA_WRITE. These roles are granted to functional roles, not directly to users.

This separation decouples users from direct permissions, making the system vastly more scalable and easier to manage. The snowflake_account_role resource is used to create both types of roles

// Define a functional role representing a user persona.
resource "snowflake_account_role" "data_analyst" {
  provider = snowflake.securityadmin // Use the securityadmin provider for role management

  name    = "DATA_ANALYST"
  comment = "Functional role for users performing data analysis and reporting."
}

// Define an access role representing a specific set of privileges.
resource "snowflake_account_role" "analytics_db_read_only" {
  provider = snowflake.securityadmin

  name    = "ANALYTICS_DB_READ_ONLY"
  comment = "Grants read-only access to all objects in the ANALYTICS database."
}

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3.2 Constructing the hierarchy: granting roles to roles

The true power of Snowflake's RBAC model is realized by creating hierarchies of roles. By granting access roles to functional roles, a logical and maintainable privilege structure is formed. If a data analyst needs access to a new data source, the corresponding access role is granted to the DATA_ANALYST functional role once, rather than granting privileges to every individual analyst. This pattern is essential for managing permissions at scale.

The snowflake_grant_account_role resource is used to create these parent-child relationships between roles. It is important to use this resource, as the older snowflake_role_grants resource is deprecated.

The following example demonstrates how to grant the ANALYTICS_DB_READ_ONLY access role to the DATA_ANALYST functional role, and then nest the functional role under the system SYSADMIN role to complete the hierarchy.

// Grant the access role to the functional role.
// This gives all members of DATA_ANALYST the privileges of ANALYTICS_DB_READ_ONLY.
resource "snowflake_grant_account_role" "grant_read_access_to_analyst" {
  provider = snowflake.securityadmin

  role_name        = snowflake_account_role.analytics_db_read_only.name
  parent_role_name = snowflake_account_role.data_analyst.name
}

// Grant the functional role to SYSADMIN to create a clear role hierarchy.
// This allows system administrators to manage and assume the functional role.
resource "snowflake_grant_account_role" "grant_analyst_to_sysadmin" {
  provider = snowflake.securityadmin

  role_name        = snowflake_account_role.data_analyst.name
  parent_role_name = "SYSADMIN"
}

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3.3 Assigning privileges to access roles

With the role structure in place, the final step is to grant specific object privileges to the access roles. The snowflake_grant_privileges_to_account_role resource is a consolidated and powerful tool for this purpose. This resource has evolved significantly in the Snowflake provider; older versions required separate grant resources for each object type (e.g., snowflake_database_grant), which resulted in verbose and repetitive code. The modern resource uses a more complex but flexible block structure (on_account_object, on_schema, etc.) to assign privileges. Users migrating from older provider versions may find this a significant but worthwhile refactoring effort.

This example grants the necessary USAGE and SELECT privileges to the ANALYTICS_DB_READ_ONLY access role.

// Grant USAGE privilege on the database to the access role.
resource "snowflake_grant_privileges_to_account_role" "grant_db_usage" {
  provider          = snowflake.securityadmin
  account_role_name = snowflake_account_role.analytics_db_read_only.name
  privileges        = ["USAGE"]
  
  on_account_object {
    object_type = "DATABASE"
    object_name = snowflake_database.analytics_db.name
  }
}

// Grant USAGE privilege on the schema to the access role.
resource "snowflake_grant_privileges_to_account_role" "grant_schema_usage" {
  provider          = snowflake.securityadmin
  account_role_name = snowflake_account_role.analytics_db_read_only.name
  privileges        = ["USAGE"]

  on_schema {
    // Use the fully_qualified_name for schema-level objects.
    schema_name = snowflake_schema.raw_data.fully_qualified_name
  }
}

// Grant SELECT on all existing tables in the schema.
resource "snowflake_grant_privileges_to_account_role" "grant_all_tables_select" {
    provider          = snowflake.securityadmin
    account_role_name = snowflake_account_role.analytics_db_read_only.name
    privileges        = ["SELECT"]
    
    on_schema_object {
        all {
            object_type_plural = "TABLES"
            in_schema          = snowflake_schema.raw_data.fully_qualified_name
    }
  }
}

// Grant SELECT on all FUTURE tables created in the schema.
resource "snowflake_grant_privileges_to_account_role" "grant_future_tables_select" {
  provider          = snowflake.securityadmin
  account_role_name = snowflake_account_role.analytics_db_read_only.name
  privileges        = ["SELECT"]

  on_schema_object {
    future {
      object_type_plural = "TABLES"
      in_schema          = snowflake_schema.raw_data.fully_qualified_name
    }
  }
}

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A particularly powerful feature demonstrated here is the use of the future block. Granting privileges on future objects ensures that the access role will automatically have the specified permissions on any new tables created within that schema. This dramatically reduces operational overhead, as permissions do not need to be manually updated every time a new table is deployed. However, it is important to understand Snowflake's grant precedence: future grants defined at the schema level will always take precedence over those defined at the database level. This can lead to "insufficient privilege" errors if not managed carefully across different roles and grant levels.

3.4 An optional "Audit" role for bypassing data masks

In certain scenarios, such as internal security audits or compliance reviews, it may be necessary for specific, highly-trusted users to view data that is normally protected by masking policies. Creating a dedicated "audit" role for this purpose provides a controlled and auditable mechanism to bypass data masking when required.

This role should be considered a highly privileged functional role and granted to users with extreme care.

// Define a special functional role for auditing PII data.
resource "snowflake_account_role" "pii_auditor" {
  provider = snowflake.securityadmin

  name    = "PII_AUDITOR"
  comment = "Functional role for users who need to view unmasked PII for audit purposes."
}

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Crucially, creating this role is not enough. For it to be effective, every relevant masking policy must be explicitly updated to include logic that unmasks data for members of the PII_AUDITOR role. This ensures that the ability to view sensitive data is granted on a policy-by-policy basis. An example of how to modify a masking policy to incorporate this audit role is shown in the following section.

Section 4: advanced data governance with dynamic data masking

Moving beyond infrastructure provisioning, Terraform can also codify and enforce sophisticated data governance policies. Snowflake's Dynamic Data Masking is a powerful feature for protecting sensitive data at query time. By managing these policies with Terraform, organizations can ensure that data protection rules are version-controlled, auditable, and consistently applied across all environments.

4.1 Defining the masking logic

A masking policy is a schema-level object containing SQL logic that determines whether a user sees the original data in a column or a masked version. The decision is made dynamically at query time based on the user's context, most commonly their active role.

The snowflake_masking_policy resource is used to define this logic. The policy's body contains a CASE statement that evaluates the user's session context and returns the appropriate value.

The following example creates a policy to mask email addresses for any user who is not in the DATA_ANALYST or PII_AUDITOR role.

resource "snowflake_masking_policy" "email_mask" {
  provider = snowflake.sysadmin // Policy creation often requires SYSADMIN or a dedicated governance role

  name     = "EMAIL_MASK"
  database = snowflake_database.analytics_db.name
  schema   = snowflake_schema.raw_data.name
  
  // Defines the signature of the column the policy can be applied to.
  // The first argument is always the column value to be masked.
  argument {
    name = "email_val"
    type = "VARCHAR"
  }
  
  // The return data type must match the input data type.
  return_type = "VARCHAR"

  // The core masking logic is a SQL expression.
  body = <<-EOF
    CASE
      WHEN IS_ROLE_IN_SESSION('DATA_ANALYST') OR IS_ROLE_IN_SESSION('PII_AUDITOR') THEN email_val
      ELSE '*********'
    END
  EOF

  comment = "Masks email addresses for all roles except DATA_ANALYST and PII_AUDITOR."
}

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The SQL expression within the body argument offers immense flexibility. It can use various context functions (like CURRENT_ROLE() or IS_ROLE_IN_SESSION()) and even call User-Defined Functions (UDFs) to implement complex logic. However, this flexibility means the logic itself is not validated by Terraform's syntax checker; it is sent directly to Snowflake for validation during the

terraform apply step. It is also a strict requirement that the data type defined in the argument block and the return_type must match the data type of the column to which the policy will eventually be applied.

4.2 Applying the policy to a column

Creating a masking policy is only the first step; it does not protect any data on its own. The policy must be explicitly applied to one or more table columns. This crucial second step is often a point of confusion for new users, who may create a policy and wonder why data is still unmasked. The snowflake_table_column_masking_policy_application resource creates this essential link between the policy and the column.

The following example demonstrates how to apply the EMAIL_MASK policy to the EMAIL column of a CUSTOMERS table.

// For this example, we assume a 'CUSTOMERS' table with an 'EMAIL' column
// already exists in the 'RAW' schema. In a real-world scenario, this table
// might also be managed by Terraform or by a separate data loading process.
// We use a data source to reference this existing table.
data "snowflake_table" "customers" {
  database = snowflake_database.analytics_db.name
  schema   = snowflake_schema.raw_data.name
  name     = "CUSTOMERS"
}

// Apply the masking policy to the specific column.
resource "snowflake_table_column_masking_policy_application" "apply_email_mask" {
  provider = snowflake.sysadmin

  table_name  = "\"${data.snowflake_table.customers.database}\".\"${data.snowflake_table.customers.schema}\".\"${data.snowflake_table.customers.name}\""
  column_name = "EMAIL" // The name of the column to be masked

  masking_policy_name = snowflake_masking_policy.email_mask.fully_qualified_name
  
  // An explicit depends_on block ensures that Terraform creates the policy
  // before attempting to apply it, preventing race conditions.
  depends_on = [
    snowflake_masking_policy.email_mask
  ]
}

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This two-step process—defining the policy logic and then applying it - provides a clear and modular approach to data governance. The same policy can be defined once and applied to many different columns across multiple tables, ensuring that the masking logic is consistent and centrally managed.

Conclusion: the path to mature Snowflake IaC

This guide has charted a course from the initial, manual bootstrapping of a secure connection to the automated provisioning and governance of a production-grade Snowflake environment. To ensure the long-term success and scalability of managing Snowflake with Terraform, several key practices should be adopted as standard procedure:

• Version control: All Terraform configuration files must be stored in a version control system like Git. This provides a complete, auditable history of all infrastructure changes and enables collaborative workflows such as pull requests for peer review before any changes are applied to production.
• Remote state management: The default behaviour of Terraform is to store its state file locally. In any team or automated environment, this is untenable. A remote backend, such as an Amazon S3 bucket with a DynamoDB table for state locking, must be configured. This secures the state file, prevents concurrent modifications from corrupting the state, and allows CI/CD pipelines and team members to work from a consistent view of the infrastructure.
• Modularity: As the number of managed resources grows, monolithic Terraform configurations become difficult to maintain. Code should be refactored into reusable modules. For instance, a module could be created to provision a new database along with a standard set of access roles and default schemas. This promotes code reuse, reduces duplication, and allows for more organized and scalable management of the environment.
• Provider versioning: The Snowflake Terraform provider is actively evolving. To prevent unexpected breaking changes from new releases, it is crucial to pin the provider to a specific major version in the terraform block (e.g., version = "~> 2.8"). This allows for intentional, planned upgrades. When upgrading between major versions, it is essential to carefully review the official migration guides, as significant changes, particularly to grant resources, may require a concerted migration effort.

With this robust foundation in place, the path is clear for expanding automation to encompass even more of Snowflake's capabilities. The next logical steps include using Terraform to manage snowflake_network_policy for network security, snowflake_row_access_policy for fine-grained data filtering, and snowflake_task for orchestrating SQL workloads. Ultimately, the entire workflow should be integrated into a CI/CD pipeline, enabling a true GitOps model where every change to the Snowflake environment is proposed, reviewed, and deployed through a fully automated and audited process. By embracing this comprehensive approach, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data platform, confident in its security, scalability, and operational excellence.

Why Snowstack for Terraform and Snowflake

Automation without expertise can still fail. Terraform gives you the tools, but it takes experience and the right design patterns to turn Snowflake into a secure, cost-efficient, and scalable platform. The hard part is deciding what “good” looks like in your Snowflake account and making that repeatable across teams, environments, and change cycles.

That is where Snowstack comes in. As a Snowflake-first consulting partner, we help organizations move beyond trial-and-error scripts to fully automated, production-grade environments. Our engineers design secure architectures, embed Terraform best practices, and ensure governance and cost controls are built in from day one.

👉 Book a strategy call with Snowstack and see how we can take your Snowflake platform from manual operations to enterprise-ready automation.

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Some companies still run databases like it’s 1999. Others have adopted cloud-native architectures that cut costs in half and double performance. Guess who’s winning?

Traditional databases force a trade-off between performance and budget. Collaboration still means passing around CSVs. Forward-thinking organizations have shifted to Snowflake’s cloud-native architecture, which scales instantly, operates securely, and keeps costs under control. But what truly sets Snowflake apart from traditional databases or even other cloud data platforms?

In this blog, we’ll break down three key architectural advantages that make Snowflake a game-changer for businesses that want to migrate to the cloud.

But first, what is a cloud-native database?

A cloud-native database is designed from the ground up for the cloud. Unlike traditional databases that were adapted from on-premise systems, cloud-native platforms are purpose-built to take advantage of the cloud’s strengths: scalability, flexibility, and resilience.

They scale horizontally by adding capacity in parallel instead of relying on bigger machines. They automatically adjust resources up or down based on demand, so you only pay for what you use. They also come with built-in high availability through data replication and automated recovery.

In short, a cloud-native database removes the rigid trade-offs of legacy systems and gives modern businesses the performance, efficiency, and reliability they need to stay competitive.

Snowflake's architecture: 3 strategic advantages

Snowflake isn’t just faster or cheaper. It’s built differently. The three architectural choices below explain why modern data teams trust Snowflake to scale, collaborate, and deliver insights in ways legacy systems never could.

1. Separation of storage and compute: elasticity without trade-offs

Most databases tie storage and compute together. Need more power to run quarterly reports? You’ll also pay for storage you don’t use. Want to keep historical data at a lower cost? You’re still paying for compute you don’t actually need.

Snowflake's Solution: Snowflake's architecture fundamentally decouples storage and compute layers, creating unprecedented flexibility for modern data teams.

• You can scale compute resources up or down independently of your data storage.
• Multiple workloads (e.g., data ingestion, analytics queries, and reporting) can run simultaneously on isolated compute clusters without performance conflicts.
• You can assign different warehouses (compute clusters) to different teams or departments without worrying about concurrency issues or resource contention.

Business impact: Imagine a BI team that runs heavy dashboards while a data science team trains models on the same data. The beauty behind this separation is that both can operate without stepping on each other’s toes. This translates to faster time-to-insight, cost control, and happy teams who aren’t waiting for resources to free up.

2. Multi-cluster shared data architecture: built for collaboration and scale

Traditional databases become performance challenge as more users access the system. Query response times degrade, teams queue for resources, and data silos emerge as different departments seek workarounds.

Snowflake's Solution: Snowflake’s multi-cluster shared data model allows any number of users and tools to access the same single source of truth without performance degradation. The platform automatically manages concurrency through intelligent multi-cluster compute scaling.

What this means for data teams:

• Unlimited concurrency: Teams don’t have to wait in line to access the warehouse. Snowflake automatically adds compute clusters as needed and scales them back down when demand drops.
• Cross-team collaboration: Data Engineers, analysts, and ML engineers can work off the same dataset in real time, using SQL, Python, or third-party tools.
• Data sharing across organizations: Snowflake’s architecture supports secure data sharing with external partners or vendors without copying or moving data. You simply grant access.

Business impact: This makes Snowflake not just a warehouse but a collaboration platform for data. Whether your team is distributed across continents or collaborating with external partners, Snowflake enables fast, consistent, and secure access to data.

3. Zero management with cloud-native infrastructure

Managing a traditional database means dealing with provisioning, tuning, indexing, patching, and more. These tasks require specialized DBAs and often lead to downtime, delays, and human error.

Snowflake flips the script with a “zero-management” approach.

Thanks to its fully managed SaaS model:

• No infrastructure to manage. Snowflake runs entirely in the cloud (on AWS, Azure, or GCP), abstracting away the underlying hardware.
• Automatic tuning and optimization. No need to manually set indexes or optimize queries, Snowflake handles that under the hood.
• Security and compliance out of the box. Features like automatic encryption, role-based access control, and compliance with standards (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2) are built-in.

Business impact: This lets your team focus on data and insights, not on maintenance. IT teams no longer need to waste time on low-value operational tasks. Instead, they can accelerate innovation and reduce costs.

Snowflake vs. the competition: why architecture matters

In 2025, your data architecture is more than a technical choice. It is a strategic decision that defines how quickly your organization can compete, innovate, and scale. When you compare modern data platforms, Snowflake's architectural advantages become clear when compared to alternatives:

How Snowflake’s architecture drives results?

Snowflake’s architecture solves the trade-offs that hold traditional databases back and delivers flexibility that many cloud platforms still lack. But technology alone is not enough. The difference comes from how you implement it.

Take the case of a $200M pharmaceutical distributor. Their teams were stuck with siloed on-prem systems, compliance risks, and reports that took hours to run. Our Snowflake-certified experts helped them migrate to Snowflake’s cloud-native architecture with a single governed data layer, dedicated compute clusters, and built-in role-based access. In just 90 days, reporting was 80% faster, the architecture was ready for AI and advanced analytics, and teams finally worked from the same source of truth.

👉 Read the full case study here

Making Snowflake’s architecture work for your business

Every organization’s data challenges look different, but the goal is the same: to turn Snowflake into a platform that delivers measurable results. That’s where Snowstack comes in. We bring proven experience from complex projects in finance, pharma, and FMCG. This gives clients confidence that their architecture is designed for scale, collaboration, and compliance from day one. Our role goes beyond implementation. We act as a long-term partner who helps data teams adapt, optimize, and grow with Snowflake as business needs evolve.

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