# Zero-Copy Data Integration

Zero-copy data integration with Airship allows direct use of data from external systems, which means data remains in its original location instead of being copied or imported into Airship. You can access your data in real time for segmentation and personalization using Attributes.

This approach offers several benefits. It uses existing data infrastructure and tools, which makes it efficient. It also provides flexibility and control since data stays in its native environment. The data is always as fresh as your data warehouse, with no waiting for imports and no synchronizations job that can fail. 

Your externally sourced [Attributes](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#attributes) behave the same as other Airship Attributes. You can use them to build [Segments](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#segment) and personalize content using [Handlebars](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#handlebars).

## Supported data source and types

Our initial release of zero-copy data integration is supported for [Snowflake](https://snowflake.com/), a fully managed cloud-based data warehouse and analytics service for storing and analyzing data.

The integration supports the same data type as Attributes from other sources:

* **Text** — String values for personalization and segmentation
* **Number** — Integer, float, or string values for calculations and comparisons
* **Date** — Date and timestamp values for time-based targeting
* **JSON** — Complex structured data for advanced personalization

For more information, see [Attribute types](https://www.airship.com/docs/guides/audience/attributes/about/#attribute-types) in *About Attributes*.

## Configuration and documentation

Setup requires configuration by Airship. To get started, contact your Airship account manager or [Support](https://support.airship.com/) to request the integration.

Airship will help you with these steps:

* Setting up the integration for your Airship project
* Identifying the tables and views you want to be able to access in Airship — For example, tables containing customer profile data like demographics, preferences, or subscription status
* Mapping your Snowflake data to [Channel IDs](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#channel_id) and [Attributes](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#attributes)

For more information about benefits, use cases, and details about setup and use, see [Zero-copy data integration](https://www.airship.com/docs/guides/features/data-integration/zero-copy-data-integration/).