Snowflake unveils tools to boost cross-cloud collaboration

Snowflake has announced new capabilities to improve cross-cloud collaboration in enterprise data and artificial intelligence (AI).

These enhancements were revealed at the annual BUILD 2024 conference, presenting improvements in how businesses can securely access, evaluate, and share data, AI models, and applications both internally and with external partners. The enhancements leverage Snowflake's extensive, enterprise-focused data and AI ecosystem.

Prasanna Krishnan, Head of Collaboration and Horizon at Snowflake, emphasised the necessity for businesses to have instantaneous access to comprehensive data, both internally generated and sourced from customers and partners. Krishnan stated, "To keep up with the evolving data and AI landscape, enterprises need instant access to all of the data within their organizations, supplemented with their customers' and partners' data, in order to build powerful AI apps at scale for crucial decision-making." He continued, "That's where Snowflake's industry-leading cross-cloud collaboration comes in, enabling organizations to not only access and share their most valuable data, but also apps and AI models, both internally and externally with third-parties. Snowflake's latest innovations unlock new ways for teams to collaborate on these initiatives and bring AI and apps into production faster, while handling security and governance implications to reduce risk."

The new Snowflake Internal Marketplace, which has now become generally available, enables teams within organizations to find, share, and collaborate on data, applications, and AI products without leaking sensitive information externally. This includes the ability to share fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) for specific generative AI use cases, benefiting from increased accuracy and performance.

Moreover, with the addition of the Copilot for Listings (in private preview), teams can execute SQL commands and query structured data through an AI assistant to quickly assess data relevance. Tobias Hadem, Vice President of Engineering at Flix Mobility, highlighted the benefits, stating, "As a leading global mobility-tech company, it's crucial to use the full potential of data to provide our customers an unforgettable travel experience. Snowflake's Internal Marketplace will empower our data teams to promote and securely share their data products within the organization, driving informed, data-driven decisions across the company."

Snowflake has also introduced the Snowflake Native App Framework which integrates with Snowpark Container Services, assisting in swift app development. This feature provides a multifunctional workspace where developers can build apps in their preferred programming languages and deploy them efficiently on expandable infrastructure.

The Native App Framework's new features, including support for the Snowpark ML Modeling API and Secure Model Sharing, aim to streamline the model development and distribution process for enterprise users. Matthew Glickman, Co-Founder and CEO of Genesis Computing, expressed the advantages, "We're building our business exclusively on Snowflake, and thanks to the Snowflake Native App integration with Snowpark Container Services, we were able to launch our first product in a matter of weeks. The integration gives us the flexibility to build sophisticated, enterprise-grade AI Data Agents at scale and quickly deploy and monetize our products on Snowflake Marketplace. Our partnership with Snowflake is providing tremendous customer value, and enabling Snowflake customers to harness the power of agentic AI in just a few clicks — all within the security and governance boundaries of the AI Data Cloud."

In addition, Snowflake announced the forthcoming general availability of the Egress Cost Optimizer to help manage expenses associated with data transfers between cloud regions, promising significant cost savings for developers. The new tool is expected to give developers greater control over distribution expenses.

Enterprises can now easily deploy AI applications from the Snowflake Marketplace and assess them against security benchmarks thanks to the availability of Snowflake Native App Support for Secure Deployments and Compliance Badging.