Snowflake 'Demystifying' the Evolution of AI for Partners

CF: Was there anything in particular in some of the Snowflake AI and data announcements this week that should particularly excite your partners?

TP: A lot of the innovation we are releasing that relates to AI has opened up an opportunity for all of our partners. We're moving beyond Snowflake as a data cloud platform to Snowflake as more of an AI platform.

So for a services firm, that opens up a tremendous amount of opportunity to go in with confidence of, "Let's reimagine the finance function" or "let's reimagine the customer service function" with their customers, and knowing that they can reasonably deploy this easily and securely on the Snowflake platform. So the announcements about AI are what I think the ecosystem in general thinks is really relevant.

CF: How are the partners doing in terms of keeping up with that pace of innovation in AI? That has to be a constant challenge.

TP: I think it is a challenge. It's a challenge for the industry in general, right? There's so much change and so much evolution. I think we do have a responsibility to bring our partners and our customers along on that journey, to demystify some of the evolution, the technology innovation that's going on in the market. That's part of the reason I'm so confident in our approach to the market: Let's demystify some of that. Let's make it simple. Let's provide option[s]. Let's provide this platform and those partners can come on [board]. That, however, requires us to invest in building awareness, transparency around our road maps, where are we going and when are we going there, and investing in training and certification.

CF: Speaking of technical certifications, you announced a couple of new ones this week.

TP: We have a standard core certification, and then we have these advanced certifications that take you deeper into the different elements of the Snowflake platform. There were two that we announced yesterday: Snowpark Specialist and Implementation Specialist. These allow our partners to build deeper capabilities.

CF: Is there anything you would say that unites all of your partners? You and your team talk about the "connected ecosystem," Snowflake partners working together to help individual customers achieve their business outcomes.

TP: If I look at other technology companies in our industry, oftentimes they'll have a technology partner business that sits somewhere, a cloud provider partner business that sits somewhere else, and a services business that sits somewhere else. We have a unified partner strategy on a global level at Snowflake. It allows you to look for those synergies between different partner types.

So when we talk to a GSI, for example ... their opportunity when they work with their customers is not simply about the Snowflake platform, but all the innovation on top of that. So these different app providers and data providers that are deeply embedded in our platform, that gives them a much better opportunity to talk to customers to solve their business problems. That's an exciting element that I think differentiates us, because I can say with authority that we have an industry strategy in financial services, and it's comprised of these app providers, these data providers, these technology solutions, and these SIs have a point of view on that.

CF: When you go to prospective partners and then subsequently new customers, what is the differentiator for the Snowflake AI Data Cloud that you talk to them about?

TP: I think it's when I'm talking to the SIs. It's really about looking at Snowflake as a platform and not as a collection of tools. It's a platform that will allow you to go in with confidence to talk to your customers, how you reimagine all parts of the business as it relates to data and AI. So the nuance there, this is not about picking these different elements of technology in the data and AI space, but it's picking a platform of which we can interoperate with a variety of players. We have optionality around cloud providers and so on. So we take this sort of democratization of data and AI. I think our partners appreciate that, because it allows them to get to the business value with the customers much more quickly.

CF: What would you say is the long-term impact of AI for your partners and alliances?

TP: It's really the opportunity to go drive business value with these customers and its unique value in the industry. If I reflect on each of the "generations" of technology, it started very much around the technology, but most of our partners evolved to wanting to drive business value as the platform emerges.

I think of SAP becoming the de facto standard for ERP and back office, but it wasn't necessarily about configuring the SAP instance for a customer. It was about how you reimagine your finance function. Salesforce in CRM became a de facto standard, and that certainly at some point became, "How do you install Salesforce?" but it quickly became, "How do you improve the customer experience on that platform?" And I think Snowflake is that next platform for data and AI.

So it certainly has been about how you deploy the technology and migrate data, but the real opportunity is how you leverage that platform − the de facto platform for data and AI − and then drive business value and help your customers innovate.

CF: What are you most excited about in the next six months?

TP: We're certainly coming out of this week with a tremendous amount of excitement and energy. The partner ecosystem seems to be buzzing. If you walk through our exhibit hall, we have almost 200 exhibitors here demonstrating some very interesting innovation on top of the Snowflake platform. Now it's about going out and talking to our joint customers about this innovation, and how to leverage the platform, the new features and the new things we announced this week, and then begin to identify these new use cases that continue to add value to our customers all around the world.

CF: Anything else you want the Channel Futures audience to know?

TP: I would just reiterate that clearly we are striving to be the de facto standard for data and AI. Every successful platform in the history of technology had a robust ecosystem to support it. That ecosystem was comprised of technology and applications and service providers and experts to help our customers get more value. I see the announcements this week as further establishing ourselves as a de facto platform, a standard platform for data and AI. It, by definition, means we need a very robust, healthy ecosystem.

CF: Anything else you want the Channel Futures audience to know?

TP: I would just reiterate that clearly we are striving to be the de facto standard for data and AI. Every successful platform in the history of technology had a robust ecosystem to support it. That ecosystem was comprised of technology and applications and service providers and experts to help our customers get more value. I see the announcements this week as further establishing ourselves as a de facto platform, a standard platform for data and AI. It, by definition, means we need a very robust, healthy ecosystem.