'Robust Ecosystem' of Snowflake Partners Critical to Company's Success

SNOWFLAKE DATA CLOUD SUMMIT — Snowflake is eager to work with its partner ecosystem to attract new customers and do more with existing customers.

That was the message from Tyler Prince, senior vice president, worldwide alliances and channels, during the partner keynote Wednesday at Snowflake Data Cloud Summit.

As Snowflake works with its cloud, system-integrator, data and apps, and services partners to innovate ways to help clients understand their data, the rapid rise in artificial intelligence will play a huge role.

Prince noted how Snowflake is building the "No. 1 ecosystem for AI apps and expertise."

"Every enterprise in the world is focusing on generative AI," he said. "It's a change across our industry, for every size of business in every country. I feel we are well-positioned because we are the leading and most trusted AI delivering on our promises for all of our customers. ... We have an ecosystem full of solution providers and experts to help our customers transform their business on the Snowflake platform."

Partners often are the earliest adopters of Snowflake technology, but also are critical in the design and building of new products.

“For those who choose to align with us early on and be on the bleeding edge, our commitment to you is, we’re going to be there for you," said Christian Kleinerman, Snowflake's executive vice president of product.

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Zakir Hussain leads the national enterprise data practice at EY, the consulting and professional services giant, covering all sectors for the company except for financial services. This means he oversees all data work, with a particular focus on the advanced manufacturing, mobility and customer retail verticals.

In its alliance with Snowflake, EY provides expertise in implementing industry solutions and modernizing enterprises both in terms of data and AI, while Snowflake provides the foundation with its AI data cloud.

“Over the last 18 months, AI has become the top priority for all chief experience officers. And because of that, data has become the top priority for all CXOs," said Hussain. "To scale AI, to get any real insights from AI, the focus goes straight back to data, whether it’s structured or unstructured, data within the four walls of the business or data you're leveraging from outside those walls. It all comes down to how you bring that data together."

EY's global strategic alliance with Snowflake is one of its most important, said Hussain. He predicts significant growth over the course of the next year through the alliance.

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He described to Channel Futures the three most important things he discusses with customers about modernizing their businesses.

EY's Zakir Hussain

“[First], everyone should be prioritizing investment in data readiness for AI. Second, it’s very important to get the right governance structure in place not just for data, but also for AI. The third thing would be to make sure you tie ROI to the investments by bringing in the business stakeholders on the journey.”

Indicium is a consultancy that creates solutions in data science, analytics and artificial intelligence. Working with Snowflake for more than two years, Indicium is the company's largest partner in Latin America with a strong U.S. presence as well. Indicium uses Snowflake to develop end-to-end solutions for clients via the Snowflake AI data cloud.

"Enterprise companies today are looking to begin or expand their use of AI," said Matheus Dellagnelo, Indicium CEO. "To achieve this goal, first they need to organize their data. In this sense, Snowflake is the perfect tool to have all data organized and ready for AI solutions."

Hakkoda calls itself a new kind of data consulting firm focused on innovation. A three-year old company, co-founder and CEO Erik Duffield saw an opportunity to build his business with Snowflake at the core.

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"If you think of a solar system, Snowflake is the sun for us," said Duffield in a sit-down with Channel Futures at Snowflake Data Cloud Summit. "AWS and that modern data stack extend that to deliver end-to-end solutions for our customers."

Hakkoda's Erik Duffield

Hakkoda is heavily focused on the health care, financial and public sector verticals, with most organizations asking questions about AI and how to manage their massive amounts of data. The company feels a responsibility to help clients become more efficient.

"AI is not only fundamental to the future of most of our customers; we see its impact on our business in IT services," said Duffield. "That is coming very fast. So we are using AI to deliver our services differently."

Hakkoda set up shop with a booth in the Snowflake Data Cloud Summit 2024 Basecamp expo hall, San Francisco.

Duffield likes what he's heard about at this week's event, particularly Snowflake's commitment to open platforms.

"Snowflake is about simplicity — making all of these complex things simple and attainable," added Duffield. "For our customer segment, the Fortune 1000 with $2 billion in revenue ... they get rewarded for driving outcomes in businesses that are real. ... Making it simple is so important, and that commitment reiterated [by Snowflake] multiple times this week is super important to us."

Snowflake's services partners have implemented 6,000 projects for customers in the past year, said Amy Kodl, VP of services alliances, Snowflake. And in many cases, they're working together in what the company calls a "connected ecosystem," filling in gaps that some of their counterparts don't have.

"Our ecosystem is growing because there's an incredible demand for partners who do it all," said Kodl. "They help unlock customer data and help customers take advantage of incredible innovations to drive business outcomes. We're investing in our ecosystem. You (partners) are an incredibly important part of that."

Nearly 200 large Snowflake partner businesses are attending this week's event.