I recently had the opportunity to join fellow data superhero Keith Belanger for the second episode of "Behind the Cape", a series of videos where Snowflake experts dive into various topics. For this episode, we tackled the meaty topic of Snowflake cost optimization. Given we only had 30 minutes, it ended up being a higher level conversation around how to get started, Snowflake's billing model, and tools Snowflake provides to control costs.

Here is a full list of topics we discussed:

1. How should you get started with Snowflake cost optimization? (TL,DR: build up a holistic understanding of your cost drivers before diving into any optimization efforts)
2. Where most customers are today with their understanding of Snowflake usage
3. How does Snowflake's billing model work (did you know it's actually cheaper to store data in Snowflake?)
4. The tools offered by Snowflake for cost visibility
5. Methods you have to control costs (resource monitors, query timeouts, and ACCESS CONTROL - the one no one thinks of!)
6. Where should you start with cost cutting? Start optimizing queries? Or go higher level?
7. Resources for learning more.

For those looking to get an overview of cost optimization, monitoring and control, this is a great place to start. The video recording can be found below. There is so much to discuss on this topic and we didn't get to go super deep, so will have to do a follow up soon!