Snowflake Debuts Native App Framework, Container Services Document AI

Cloud database provider Snowflake is building out its new online application marketplace with the launch of its Snowflake Native App Framework. Snowflake rolled out the public preview of the new framework in the AWS cloud at this week’s Snowflake Summit 2023 in Las Vegas.

Snowflake’s new cloud-native app framework is among numerous announcements throughout the weeklong event that included partnerships and previews by the company. Many of the announcements focused on advancing the development of AI and machine learning training into applications that can tap the Snowflake cloud database. Among them were Document AI, Snowpark Container Services and the release of various APIs.

The new Snowflake Native App Framework lets developers build applications that can scale with Snowflake’s Data Cloud and utilize its operating model. Partners will soon be able to deploy their applications built in this framework in the new Snowflake Marketplace. Snowflake said it will imminently release a public preview that lets developers add monetization capabilities.

Snowflake first revealed its plan to create the app framework a year ago, and until now, it has been in private preview. The first companies planning to host native apps in the new marketplace are Bond Brand Loyalty, Capital One Software, DTCC, Goldman Sachs, LiveRamp, Matillion, and My Data Outlet.

Snowflake Native App Framework: Using Apple’s App Store Model

Frank Slootman, Snowflake’s CEO, compared the Snowflake Marketplace to Apple’s mobile app store in his keynote at the conference.

“There is now such a thing as a Snowflake application,” Slootman said. “And we’re now building applications as Snowflake applications. We’re super excited about that because they’re using all the common services, common governance frameworks, and obviously the database engine, which is really the centerpiece to the entire platform.”

Slootman claimed that the applications will run in multiple clouds as a single implementation. Also, he predicts it will grow into a substantial ecosystem.

“These apps, there are going to be hundreds of them,” he said. “If we’re successful, there are going to be thousands of them. This is really a core part of our strategy. Apps are not just limited to application developers [and] software companies. Everybody these days is a software developer. Everybody is building the customer-facing applications, internal applications, and so on.”

The Snowflake Native App Framework was one of the multiple announcements by the company to broaden the capabilities of its widely used cloud database. A roundup of them appears in the slideshow above.