The Snowflake data platform has become popular for enterprise data analytics due to its fast, easy-to-use, and flexible solutions. It uses a cloud-based architecture that separates storage and compute, enabling users to customize the power allocated in the cloud to its SQL query engine. Virtual warehouses are a key concept, allowing users to run SQL statements with a given allocation of computing resources, controlling costs while analyzing big data sets. Snowflake warehouses come in 10 sizes, ranging from X-Small to 6X-Large, and must be running during sessions to consume Snowflake credits, which are used to pay for processing power inside the platform.