Migrating AWS snowflake to Azure Platform

Question

Hello Team,

Good morning.
Hope you're doing great...!!

We have an use case where we want to migrate AWS snowflake (legacy system) to Azure platform.

We are trying to connect AWS snowflake to Azure Data factory but seems it is impossible to connect AWS snowflake to ADF as mentioned below in the documentation.

Could you please tell us the workaround or how can we connect AWS snowflake and move the data into Azure environment as this is a big blocker in order to move towards the Azure platform.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you.

Cheers,

Dheeraj

Answer 1

Snowflake is not exclusive to AWS; it's a cloud-agnostic data warehousing platform that can run on various cloud providers including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Migrating Snowflake from AWS to Azure should be achievable and since you mentioned that there is a specific blocker with direct integration between AWS Snowflake and Azure Data Factory (ADF),I am assuming the following :

1. Export Data from Snowflake on AWS:
   • Utilize Snowflake's native data unloading functionality to export the data to a staging area like Amazon S3.
   • Format the data in a common format such as CSV or Parquet, based on your needs.
2. Transfer Data to Azure Blob Storage:
   • You can use Azure Data Factory with a Copy Activity to transfer data from Amazon S3 to Azure Blob Storage. Alternatively, Azure DataBox or Azure Storage Explorer tools might be useful for this transfer.
3. Load Data into Azure Snowflake or Target System:
   • Create a new Snowflake account on the Azure platform if that is your target, or choose another Azure-based storage system.
   • Use Azure Data Factory, SnowSQL, or another Azure-supported ETL tool to load the data from Azure Blob Storage into your target system in Azure.
4. Handle Schema Migration:
   • If you're migrating the entire database, including schemas, stored procedures, views, etc., you may need to script out these objects and recreate them in the Azure environment.
5. Consider Security and Compliance:
   • Ensure that all data transfers comply with relevant security and privacy regulations.
6. Optimize and Monitor:
   • Post-migration, perform necessary optimizations and continuously monitor performance.
7. Engage Professional Services if Needed:
   • If the migration becomes too complex, consider engaging Azure or Snowflake professional services or a certified partner to assist with the migration.

If you provide more information I would be able to assist you.