Feature
The Gist
- Zero copy reshapes CDP architecture. Instead of duplicating data into a CDP, brands query customer data directly in their warehouse—reducing risk, cutting storage costs and unlocking fresher insights.
- Warehouse-native is becoming the enterprise standard. With Snowflake, Databricks and BigQuery powering modern stacks, zero copy is rapidly emerging as the default for large, regulated and real-time–focused organizations.
- Trade-offs remain—and strategy drives the right fit. Zero copy brings governance and agility gains, but leaders must weigh compute costs, latency risks, vendor lock-in and the practical need for hybrid models.
As customer data platforms (CDPs) continue to evolve, zero-copy architectures are quickly gaining traction. Rather than copying data into a separate CDP database, zero-copy approaches are able to use data in place—within your existing warehouse or data lake—reducing duplication, minimizing latency and improving governance.
For businesses that are already investing heavily into cloud data stacks, zero copy promises a leaner, safer path to unify identity, analytics and activation without the traditional burden of data movement. But as more CDP vendors tout “no-copy” as a feature, the reality is more nuanced—and full of trade-offs.
In this article, we’ll explore how zero copy is redefining CDP architecture, where it excels, where it falls short, and how your data strategy (and CX goals) should steer which path you adopt.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Why Zero Copy Is Gaining Traction in the CDP World
- FAQ on Zero Copy
- What Is Zero Copy? (And Why Does It Matter for CDPs?)
- Zero Copy in Practice: How Modern CDPs Are Adapting
- The Role of Zero-Copy Data in CDP Strategy
- Benefits and Trade-Offs: What Zero Copy Solves (and What It Doesn’t)
- Zero Copy vs. Traditional CDPs: Which Is Right for Your Business?
- The Future of Customer Data Architectures: Beyond Zero Copy
- Conclusion: Making Zero Copy Work for You
Introduction: Why Zero Copy Is Gaining Traction in the CDP World
The Limits of Copy-First CDP Architecture
For years, CDPs have promised to break down data silos and give brands a unified, actionable view of the customer. Yet, most legacy CDPs have depended on a copy-first approach—pulling data from source systems into their own proprietary databases. That model brought its own challenges: mounting storage costs, synchronization headaches, latency and new risks around data privacy and governance.
Why Zero Copy Is Rising Now
Today, the rapid rise of cloud data warehouses, stricter privacy mandates and the push for real-time activation are forcing a fundamental rethink. Enter zero-copy architecture—a new approach that allows CDPs to query and process customer data in place where it already lives, without making redundant copies. Rather than ingesting and storing yet another dataset, zero-copy CDPs work natively with the business’s cloud warehouse, taking advantage of the existing investment in security, governance and scalability.
Industry analysts have begun to recognize zero-copy architecture as a core shift in the evolution of CDPs. According to CMSWire’s 2025 State of Customer Data Platforms Report, the ability to “query data in place, without making redundant copies” has emerged as a top requirement for enterprises seeking to unify their data strategies and future-proof compliance.
The shift is more than technical. By querying data where it resides, brands can maintain tighter control over sensitive information, reduce compliance risks, cut infrastructure costs and unlock fresher, more actionable customer insights. With leading platforms including Snowflake, Databricks and Google BigQuery now powering warehouse-native CDPs, zero copy is fast becoming the new standard for enterprises that want agility without compromise.
FAQ on Zero Copy
Below are the core questions CX, data and IT leaders should consider when evaluating whether a zero-copy CDP aligns with their architecture, governance model and real-time activation needs.
The primary benefits of a zero-copy architecture are reduced data duplication, lower storage costs, easier compliance, and near real-time data access for segmentation and activation. However, brands must also consider challenges such as potential query latency, increased compute costs in the warehouse, limitations based on CDP/warehouse compatibility and the need for more sophisticated governance and resource planning.
A zero-copy CDP is a customer data platform that queries and processes customer data directly within your existing data warehouse or data lake, rather than ingesting and storing copies of that data in its own database. Unlike traditional CDPs, which require data duplication and periodic batch syncs, zero-copy CDPs provide real-time access, improved governance and reduced compliance risks by working natively with your centralized cloud data stack.
What Is Zero Copy? (And Why Does It Matter for CDPs?)
Traditionally, CDPs have relied on data ingestion—that is, pulling customer records from source systems, transforming them with ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and storing duplicates in the CDP’s own database. While this approach helped centralize data, it also created bottlenecks—introducing delays, ballooning storage costs, and increasing the risk of data drift or compliance headaches as copies proliferated across the stack.
How Zero Copy Works Under the Hood
Zero copy upends this model. Instead of making yet another copy, zero-copy CDPs query data directly where it already lives—typically in a modern cloud data warehouse. There’s no bulk ingestion, no endless data movement and far less risk of losing track of which version is the “source of truth.”
Vendors sometimes use “zero copy” and “warehouse-native” interchangeably, as the basic idea is the same: let brands activate, segment and analyze customer data without physically duplicating it or moving it. This is enabled by a combination of APIs, direct SQL queries, and—at the leading edge—federated access frameworks.
Federated Access as a Zero-Copy Enabler
Federated access frameworks—such as BigQuery’s federated queries, Snowflake’s external tables or Databricks’ Delta Sharing—allow CDPs to securely query and activate customer data “in place” across different warehouses and regions, without the need for duplication or centralization. This architectural approach is used by many zero-copy and warehouse-native CDPs in 2025.
Why Data Leaders Are Reconsidering Zero Copy
Many data leaders initially viewed zero copy as marketing hype, but found its operational advantages compelling after implementation.
Arunkumar Thirunagalingam, AI and data expert, senior manager of data and technical operations at McKesson, told CMSWire that when he initially started hearing about zero copy, he thought it was a buzzword.
"But it's actually a change in how you think about customer data. Instead of copying data into yet another system, you're just accessing the warehouse you've already invested in. It's lighter, less messy, and quite frankly, safer." Thirunagalingam suggested that zero copy fundamentally changes how brands view customer data—reducing redundancy and improving governance by using the warehouse as the single source of truth.
Why Is Zero Copy Accelerating?
Why is this shift taking hold now? Several broader trends are accelerating the move toward zero-copy architectures. As customer data accumulates in cloud warehouses, data gravity makes it more practical—and cost-effective—to bring analytics and applications to where the data already lives, rather than moving it between systems.
At the same time, growing privacy and regulatory requirements mean that every additional copy of personally identifiable or behavioral data increases both risk and compliance costs. Keeping data in place, with fewer duplicates to manage, simplifies governance.
Finally, businesses have made significant investments in platforms like Snowflake and Databricks to build robust, governed data infrastructure. Zero-copy CDPs are designed to take advantage of these environments, enabling brands to unlock insights and drive activation without compromising security or oversight.
Related Article: Which Is Broken: Your CDP or Your Customer Data Management?
Zero Copy in Practice: How Modern CDPs Are Adapting
The promise of zero copy isn’t just theoretical—it’s already reshaping the next generation of customer data platforms. Leading vendors like Segment, ActionIQ, mParticle, Hightouch, and RudderStack have all rolled out warehouse-native capabilities, enabling brands to tap into the power of cloud data warehouses without the headaches of data duplication.
Traditional CDP vs. Zero-Copy CDP: Key Differences
This comparison highlights the architectural, operational and governance distinctions between copy-based CDPs and modern warehouse-native models.
| Feature | Traditional CDP | Zero-Copy CDP |
|---|---|---|
| Data storage | Duplicates and stores data in a CDP-managed database | Queries data in place with no duplication |
| Latency | Batch syncs introduce delays and stale data | Near real-time access to the latest information |
| Compliance and privacy | Multiple copies increase governance and compliance risk | Data remains in the warehouse, reducing exposure and simplifying governance |
| Scalability | Constrained by the CDP’s internal infrastructure | Inherits cloud data warehouse scalability and performance |
| Activation | Campaigns may lag due to batch updates and sync cycles | Enables real-time segmentation, triggers and activation |
| Cost model | Higher storage costs; lower compute usage in the warehouse | Lower storage costs; higher compute usage in the warehouse |
How Modern CDPs Are Implementing Zero Copy
In these modern stacks, the CDP no longer needs to ingest, store, or manage redundant copies of customer records. Instead, it connects directly to the warehouse, running live queries against governed, up-to-date data. For example, ActionIQ’s HybridCompute and Segment’s Warehouse Sync both enable brands to build real-time segments and audiences by querying data in place—eliminating delays, sync jobs, and storage bloat.
Integration runs deep: CDPs are taking advantage of APIs, direct SQL and even federated query frameworks—technologies that enable a single query to access and combine data from multiple warehouses or sources without duplicating it—to easily interact with the business’s existing data architecture. This means teams can activate marketing campaigns, personalize web experiences, or resolve customer identities using the same source of truth that powers analytics and BI—no more moving data from A to B just to run a campaign.
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Real-Time Activation on Live Warehouse Data
Brands are able to deliver next-best-action recommendations and targeted offers using the freshest possible data, as activations are able to pull directly from the live warehouse. Zero-copy CDPs can also stitch together user profiles and resolve identities on demand, reducing the risk of out-of-sync customer records. Whether it’s email, ads, or in-app messaging, campaigns can now be triggered based on real-time signals—without waiting for overnight ETL jobs or risking data staleness.
Governance Advantages for IT and Data Teams
For IT and data teams, this shift is profound. Zero copy fundamentally changes the data pipeline: governance policies and access controls defined at the warehouse layer flow through to every activation and audience, reducing the sprawl of shadow IT and data silos. Data quality issues are easier to spot and fix at the source. And because the CDP no longer stores sensitive customer data, privacy risks are reduced and compliance becomes simpler to manage.
Speed and Agility Gains for Practitioners
Practitioners are seeing significant operational gains from adopting zero copy, not just for IT but for business agility as a whole.
Ravi Mayuram, CTO at Uniphore, told CMSWire that through the use of zero-copy architecture, he has unlocked a new level of speed and agility across the business.
"What used to take weeks of back and forth between marketing, engineering and data teams now takes as little as a day, maybe even a few hours. Speed-to-market is what makes the zero-copy CDP approach so revolutionary," Mayuram said. "Eliminating data duplication has a couple of other advantages, consistency in results (with multiple copies data tends to become divergent and give inconsistent results); cuts down on storage costs and most importantly reduces the threat surface area of the data, making it more secure."
The end result? Business teams move faster with better data, while IT retains control and oversight. As brands push for real-time engagement and stricter data privacy, zero copy is emerging as a must-have capability for the modern, cloud-native CDP.
Related Article: Customer Data Platforms See Growth, Lack New Players
The Role of Zero-Copy Data in CDP Strategy
What CX and Marketing Leaders Need to Know
Despite vendor claims, most CDPs—zero-copy or otherwise—still copy some data for performance or transformation reasons. The distinction is not binary. It’s about architectural intent and how well a CDP supports your organization’s broader data strategy.
- For IT teams: Zero copy centralizes governance within your CDW, reducing movement and reconciliation burdens.
- For CX leaders: The value lies in whether real-time personalization and activation remain fast enough. Some composable CDPs trade absolute performance for flexibility.
- For decision-makers: Don’t rely solely on vendor claims. Test real-time performance, data fidelity and integration scope—especially for “zero-copy” offerings built on Data Cloud platforms.
Ultimately, as mParticle emphasizes, zero copy is not a final destination. It’s a strategic mindset—one that minimizes unnecessary movement, enforces data quality and aligns activation with centralized governance.
Benefits and Trade-Offs: What Zero Copy Solves (and What It Doesn’t)
Evaluating Zero Copy: Strengths and Gaps
Zero-copy architectures are quickly winning over enterprise data teams, largely because they directly address some of the most persistent frustrations in traditional CDP deployments. By shifting away from data duplication, brands can significantly cut storage costs while reducing the risk of data silos and inconsistent customer records.
With the ability to query data in place, marketers and analysts gain near real-time access to the freshest insights, freeing teams from the delays of overnight batch jobs or manual data syncs. This means customer segments, campaign triggers, and reports all reflect the current state of the business, which is essential for delivering personalized experiences at scale.
Zero-Copy CDP Fit: Which Organizations Benefit?
| Business Type | Ideal for Zero-Copy CDP? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Large Enterprise | Yes | Significant investment in cloud data warehouses, strong governance, real-time activation needs |
| Digital-First Brand | Yes | Requires agility, privacy, and rapid experimentation |
| SMB or Early-Stage Business | Sometimes | May prefer traditional CDPs for simplicity or cost; real-time not always needed |
| Highly Regulated Industry | Yes | Zero copy reduces compliance risk by limiting data movement |
CMSWire’s CDP Guide notes that warehouse-native and zero-copy models deliver significant benefits around governance, security and cost reduction, thanks to a single source of truth and reduced storage sprawl. However, the analysis also warns that these architectures “can introduce challenges around query performance, cost allocation, and feature compatibility—particularly as data volumes and real-time activation needs grow.”
Security and Compliance Benefits
Security and compliance are also simplified under zero copy. Because customer data never leaves the central warehouse, existing security controls, access policies, and audit trails stay in force, making it easier to comply with regulatory requirements and demonstrate governance during audits. Data stewards and IT leaders find governance much more straightforward, as everyone is working from a single, trusted version of the truth rather than juggling multiple copies spread across different systems.
Operational Drawbacks to Consider
However, zero copy is not without its challenges. Querying large or complex datasets directly in the warehouse can sometimes strain system resources or introduce latency—especially during peak periods or when running computationally intensive queries. In some cases, real-time activation workloads can compete with analytics jobs, prompting the need for careful resource planning or warehouse scaling.
There’s also a degree of vendor lock-in to consider. Not every CDP or data warehouse supports zero copy out of the box, and teams may find themselves limited by the features and integrations offered by their chosen platform. Some advanced CDP capabilities, like sophisticated identity stitching or multi-channel orchestration, may not be as robust when everything runs on live queries rather than pre-ingested data.
The Case for Hybrid Approaches
Some CDP vendors argue that a hybrid approach—combining zero copy with efficient data copying for heavy workloads—offers the best of both worlds.
Karen Wood, CMO and VP of product marketing at CDP platform provider Treasure Data, told CMSWire that as a CDP provider, "Zero copy changed our posture from ‘copy then compute’ to ‘govern in place, compute where it’s best.’ For enterprises, that does not mean warehouse-only. We combine zero copy to respect data gravity and governance with Easy Sync to pre-compute the heavy, repeatable activation workloads. That hybrid pattern delivers the trifecta—one source of truth, faster time-to-value, and predictable cost/performance while avoiding the latency and cost traps that composable-only stacks face."
Wood explained that by blending in-place access with selective data copying for high-volume activations, hybrid models give enterprises more flexibility to manage cost, performance, and compliance—adapting to both governance requirements and real-time marketing needs.
The Cost Equation in Zero-Copy Architectures
Another important consideration is how costs are allocated. While eliminating duplicate storage can lower expenses, compute costs in the cloud data warehouse may increase, since both analytics and activation are now running on the same infrastructure. Brands need to look carefully at their usage patterns to understand where the real cost savings—or new expenses—will appear.
What Zero Copy Solves — and What It Doesn’t
Ultimately, zero copy solves many of the long-standing pain points of traditional CDPs, offering fresher data, easier governance, and a more optimized architecture. Yet, it requires a new level of coordination between business, IT, and data teams to balance speed, cost, and control as customer data becomes even more central to business strategy.
According to CMSWire’s 2025 CDP Market Guide, zero-copy architectures have emerged as a critical feature for modern customer data platforms, enabling brands to “query data in place, without making redundant copies.” This shift, driven by the rise of warehouse-native CDPs, is credited with enhancing governance and reducing risk—though the guide cautions that performance and integration trade-offs remain.
CDPs that are built on zero-copy architectures can provide significant compliance and governance benefits.
Bill Bruno, CEO at digital data and identity solution provider Celebrus, told CMSWire, "The biggest benefit is data compliance and governance, since you’re not creating many, many copies of data across the enterprise when the promise is fulfilled. The second benefit has been a more efficient and lean architecture for computing against the data since you’re not making copies of data and managing the data in other ways."
While the upsides of zero copy are clear—less data duplication, fresher insights, and easier finance and governance—practitioners stress that it’s not all smooth sailing. Thirunagalingam said that updates show up faster, as "governance is way easier when there’s just one source of truth," but that challenges remain, and explained that while zero-copy architectures simplify governance and reduce storage costs, brands must be prepared for higher query costs, vendor lock-in, and sometimes limited out-of-the-box features compared to traditional CDPs.
Zero Copy vs. Traditional CDPs: Which Is Right for Your Business?
Choosing Between Zero Copy and Traditional Models
Choosing between zero copy and a traditional CDP model isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision; it’s about matching architecture to the real needs and maturity of your business. For businesses sitting on massive volumes of customer data—especially those with established investments in cloud warehouses—zero copy can unlock new agility. Enterprises that already have strong data engineering teams, robust governance frameworks, and a pressing need for real-time personalization, often stand to benefit the most. The ability to query data in place lets these teams move quickly, adapt campaigns on the fly, and ensure compliance across sprawling data estates, all while reducing storage overhead and security risks.
On the other hand, smaller businesses or those just beginning to build out their customer data infrastructure may find traditional CDPs more approachable. For these businesses, the simplicity of letting the CDP handle ingestion, transformation, and storage can outweigh the flexibility of zero copy, especially if real-time activation is not a top priority. Traditional CDPs often come with more out-of-the-box integrations, guided workflows, and hands-on support, making them attractive for teams with limited IT resources or less experience in cloud data management.
Increasingly, a hybrid approach is emerging as a practical middle ground. Some brands opt to query the most volatile or sensitive data in place while still copying select datasets into the CDP for speed or advanced processing. This enables teams to balance performance with governance, gradually modernizing their data stack without overhauling every system at once. The right path forward often depends on a business’s unique mix of data volumes, regulatory requirements, in-house expertise, and budget. For many, the journey toward zero copy is incremental—a series of steps rather than an all-or-nothing leap.
Deciding between zero-copy and traditional CDPs often depends on business maturity, data team skillsets, and business goals. Thirunagalingam suggested that copy-based CDPs are not going to disappear completely. "They're still easier to implement if you don't have a mature data stack. And if you do ultra-real-time web personalization, sometimes local data stores just respond faster. But for bigger companies with large warehouse investments, zero copy just feels like the future." He predicted that while copy-based CDPs remain the right fit for less mature businesses or use cases needing ultra-fast personalization, zero copy will become the norm for enterprises already invested in modern data warehouses.
A Decision Framework for Leaders
For brands weighing their options, Bruno recommended focusing first on the business problem and requirements before getting caught up in architectural debates. When it comes to comparisons like this, Bruno suggested asking yourself several questions:
- What are the use cases you are trying to execute upon?
- What requirements do you have for the data?
- What latency is acceptable, or to put it another way: how quickly do you need the data?
- How much data are you looking to work with for each use case?
Ultimately, the best-fit architecture is the one that aligns with your brand’s capabilities and ambitions, ensuring that customer data remains a true asset rather than an ongoing headache.
The Future of Customer Data Architectures: Beyond Zero Copy
Zero Copy in the Next Generation of CDPs
As zero copy cements its place in the enterprise data conversation, a broader question emerges: Are we heading toward a future where every customer data platform is fully warehouse-native? The momentum certainly suggests as much. Industry analysts and vendors alike see zero copy not as an endpoint, but as a stepping stone toward more agile, interoperable, and privacy-conscious data ecosystems.
Interoperability and Multi-Cloud Will Shape the Future
The next wave of innovation is focused on addressing challenges that zero copy alone can’t solve. Interoperability is becoming a key battleground, as brands increasingly demand the freedom to connect data across multiple clouds, platforms, and geographies. Multi-cloud data architectures, once a rarity, are rapidly gaining ground among global enterprises, pushing CDPs to support not only in-place queries but also pain-free data federation and orchestration across diverse environments. The rise of composable CDPs—where businesses assemble best-of-breed components for identity, segmentation, analytics, and activation—signals a move away from monolithic platforms toward more flexible, modular stacks.
Privacy-By-Design as a Zero-Copy Imperative
Privacy-by-design is also set to become a defining feature of modern data architectures. With regulators intensifying scrutiny around how customer data is accessed, shared, and stored, the ability to enforce privacy policies at the point of query—rather than relying on back-end cleanup—will become non-negotiable. Future-ready CDPs will need to embed granular access controls, auditability, and automated policy enforcement into every layer of the stack.
Recent analysis in CMSWire’s CDP Guide reinforced this direction—pointing out that modern CDP vendors are increasingly leaning into warehouse-native, real-time architectures. Analysts predict that warehouse-native CDPs will continue to outpace traditional, copy-heavy platforms in terms of adoption, cost-efficiency, and flexibility, especially among large enterprises with complex data estates. At the same time, they caution that true business value will hinge not just on where data lives, but on how intelligently it can be governed, activated, and protected in a world that’s only growing more fragmented.
The Road Ahead: Hybrid Will Become the Norm
Looking ahead, most experts agree that zero copy will become the baseline, but hybrid models and flexibility will define the future. Wood suggested that zero-copy and warehouse-native CDP models are going to become the enterprise standard, but not in a rigid, one-size-fits-all fashion. "The market is rapidly shifting towards these architectures, driven by the need for better data governance, security, and efficiency. However, the future standard is likely to be a hybrid model that combines the strengths of warehouse-native and real-time processing to accommodate diverse business needs." Wood predicted that while zero copy will become foundational for most enterprises, hybrid and flexible approaches will remain essential to meet real-world business requirements.
Conclusion: Making Zero Copy Work for You
Zero copy is transforming how businesses manage customer data, but success depends on matching the approach to your team’s skills, infrastructure, and goals. As platforms and hybrid models evolve, the advantage goes to those who treat customer data as a strategic asset—activating it securely, efficiently, and at business speed. The journey toward zero copy is just beginning, and flexibility will be key as technology and needs continue to change.
