Techniques for a fast snapshot of application data in a storage system are disclosed. One computer-implemented method includes: receiving, over an electronic communications network, a first command to create a table; creating, in a storage system, the table including at least one row and a plurality of columns, the at least one row including a special metadata row, and fields of the plurality of columns including a key, a payload, a snapshot identifier number, a delete bit, a version identifier, and an entity tag; and initializing a key of the special metadata row and a payload of the special metadata row. The key of the special metadata row is initialized to a snapshot identifier, and the payload of the special metadata row is initialized to zero, and an entity tag of the special metadata row is initialized to a random value.