In Snowflake, tables represent a logical structure through which users interact with the stored data. The actual physical data is stored in micro-partitions managed by Snowflake, and the logical table structure provides the means by which SQL operations are mapped to this data. This architecture allows Snowflake to optimize storage and querying across its distributed, cloud-based data storage system.References: Snowflake Documentation on Tables

Reference: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/network-policies.html#creating-network-policies

Snowflake's access control framework utilizes a combination of Discretionary Access Control (DAC) and Role-based Access Control (RBAC). DAC in Snowflake allows the object owner to grant access privileges to other roles. RBAC involves assigning roles to users and then granting privileges to those roles. Through roles, Snowflake manages which users have access to specific objects and what actions they can perform, which is central to security and governance in the Snowflake environment.References: Snowflake Documentation on Access Control,

The Snowflake URL type used by directory tables is the scoped URL. This type of URL provides access to files in a stage with metadata, such as the Snowflake file URL, for each file