Delivery formats: API, S3, Snowflake, Parquet
From AltData.wiki, The Alternative Data Encyclopedia
Delivery formats: API, S3, Snowflake, Parquet
| Type | Primer article |
|---|---|
| Series | AltData primers |
How alternative data actually reaches a fund's stack, and which format fits each stage of evaluation.
API first, bulk later
Most evaluations start with an API: cheap to test, easy to sample. Production pipelines usually move to bulk delivery — S3 drops, Snowflake Marketplace shares or Databricks — because backtests and daily refresh at scale are cheaper and more reliable file-to-file.
What to ask for
A sample with a data dictionary, a point-in-time reconstruction example, and schema-change notifications. If a vendor only offers a dashboard and no raw delivery, treat it as a research tool, not a production feed.