Creating a database copy with SQL Clone is a two stage process. First you have to create the data image which takes as long as a backup or restore depending on the database size and then you can create the clones. When a clone is created, it is essentially just a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) mount point that references the data image, plus a differencing disk. So even for database up to 2TB in size, clones will take just seconds to create.

With PowerShell, the creation of data images and clones to be automated so that, for instance, the process can be scheduled for night time maintenance windows. Creating clones will save you hours of time and give you and your team on demand access to refreshed database copies.