Optimove Zero Copy reads data directly from your cloud data platform. No customer data is copied into Optimove, and no data leaves your environment during setup — Optimove connects with a dedicated, read-only identity that you create and control.

You manage these connections in the Connection Hub in the Optimove platform, under Settings > Access Management > Connection Hub. Before you add a connection there, your data platform administrator completes a one-time setup on your side: creating the read-only identity, granting access to the target data objects, and collecting the connection attributes Optimove needs.

This page covers the prerequisites for every Zero Copy connection, then links to the provider-specific guide for the platform you connect to.

How a Zero Copy Connection Works

1. Your administrator creates a dedicated, read-only identity in your data platform and grants it access to the target data objects
2. Your administrator collects the connection attributes — host or account identifier, compute resource, and credentials
3. You add the connection in the Connection Hub and enter those attributes
4. Optimove runs a connection test to validate authentication, access, and query execution
5. Optionally, you restrict access by IP after the connection test passes

Prerequisites

These apply to every Zero Copy connection, regardless of provider:

• Zero Copy enabled on your Optimove account — Zero Copy is in Open Beta; contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) if it is not yet available for your account
• Administrator access to your data platform — the identity, role, and grant operations in the provider guides all require admin privileges
• Target data objects already created and populated — the database, schema, and tables (Snowflake) or catalog, schema, and tables (Databricks) that Optimove will read
• A provisioned compute resource — a Snowflake warehouse or a Databricks SQL Warehouse
• Outbound connectivity over HTTPS (port 443) — no additional port configuration is required
• Optimove's IP addresses for your region — required only if your platform enforces network restrictions

For the full IP list for your region — US or EU — see the IP Allow List page.

Snowflake Connection

Optimove authenticates to Snowflake as a SERVICE-type user using an RSA key pair. The setup is performed by a Snowflake administrator with the ACCOUNTADMIN role and requires OpenSSL on a local machine to generate the keys.

The provider guide covers:

• Key pair generation — creating the RSA key pair and base64-encoding the private key for the Optimove platform
• Read-only role — a least-privilege role with FUTURE grants so new schemas, tables, and views are covered automatically
• Service user — a SERVICE-type user with the public key attached
• Authentication policy — a user-level key-pair policy, needed when an account policy blocks key-pair auth (error 390202)
• Verification and connection test — via SnowSQL or the Python connector
• Network policy — a user-level IP allow list scoped to the service user only

For the full setup, see the Zero Copy Prerequisites: Snowflake Connection guide.

Databricks Connection

Optimove authenticates to Databricks as a service principal using OAuth machine-to-machine (M2M) credentials. The setup is performed by an administrator with account admin access to the Account Console and workspace admin access to the target workspace, on a workspace with Unity Catalog enabled.

The provider guide covers:

• Service principal — created in the Account Console, with an OAuth client secret
• Workspace assignment and entitlements — Workspace access and Databricks SQL access
• SQL Warehouse access — CAN USE on the warehouse Optimove queries
• Unity Catalog grants — USE CATALOG, USE SCHEMA, and SELECT
• Connection attributes — server hostname and HTTP path from the warehouse connection details
• Verification and connection test, plus the workspace IP Access List
• Personal Access Token (PAT) — the alternative when OAuth M2M is not available

For the full setup, see the Zero Copy Prerequisites: Databricks Connection guide.

Add the Connection in Optimove

Once the provider prerequisites are complete, add the connection in the Optimove platform:

1. Go to Settings > Access Management > Connection Hub
2. Click Add Connection and select your data source type
3. Name the connection and enter the attributes your administrator collected
4. Click Test Connection to validate authentication, access to the target data objects, and query execution on the compute resource
5. Click Save — the connection appears in the connections table with its database type and last connection status

A saved connection can be reused for multiple customer lists.

For the end-user steps to build a customer list and Target Group from a connection, see the Zero Copy guide in the Optimove Academy.