Snowflake launches Openflow to speed AI data integration

Snowflake has introduced Snowflake Openflow, a data movement service designed to facilitate data interoperability and accelerate data transfer for artificial intelligence initiatives.

Snowflake Openflow allows users to connect to a wide range of data sources and architectures, streamlining the process of integrating enterprise data ecosystems with AI models, applications, and data agents directly within the Snowflake platform. The service eliminates fragmented data stacks and seeks to reduce the manual effort data teams invest in ingestion tasks. Snowflake says Openflow supports an open, extensible, and managed approach to data integration, enabling unified data management for rapid deployment of AI-powered solutions.

"Snowflake Openflow dramatically simplifies data accessibility and AI readiness. We're seeing more customers adopt an AI-first data strategy, which is dependent on having access to all of your data in a single platform. With Snowflake Openflow, we're redefining what open, extensible, and managed data integration looks like, so our customers can quickly build AI-powered apps and agents without leaving their data behind," Chris Child, Vice President of Product, Data Engineering at Snowflake, said.

Snowflake Openflow is powered by Apache NiFi, an open-source technology for automating the flow of data between systems. This enables engineers to develop custom connectors rapidly and operate them on Snowflake's managed platform. Ready-to-use connectors and processors allow integration from an array of data sources such as Box, Google Ads, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle, Proofpoint, Salesforce Data Cloud, ServiceNow, Workday, and Zendesk, with support for destinations that extend beyond the Snowflake platform.

Customers including Irwin, Securonix, and WorkWave are planning to use these features to move and scale data in their operations, leveraging hundreds of connectors to simplify global data transfer. The platform also includes features such as dbt Projects, improved support for Apache Iceberg tables, and Snowpipe Streaming, all of which are aimed at making data engineering more collaborative and scalable.

With a market opportunity estimated at USD $15 billion, Snowflake Openflow enables businesses to integrate both structured and unstructured, batch and streaming data from virtually any source, whether on-premise or in the cloud. This supports enterprises seeking to establish a single connected view of their data as they build out AI projects, without the complexity of vendor lock-in.

Snowflake's additional data engineering advancements include new capabilities to support dbt Projects natively within Snowflake via a new development environment, Snowflake Workspaces. This facilitates automation, integration with git, and assistance from an AI Copilot. The company has also extended its support for semi-structured data using the VARIANT data type and added optimisations for handling file sizes and partitions, particularly benefiting those managing Apache Iceberg tables.

Improvements to data streaming are also being rolled out, with Snowpipe Streaming now offering a higher throughput of up to 10 gigabytes per second and reduced latency, allowing near real-time data querying following ingestion.

Several partners commented on Snowflake Openflow and their collaborations:

"Our partnership with Snowflake is dedicated to empowering businesses to create exceptional customer experiences through the strategic use of their data. With Snowflake Openflow, our joint customers will be able to seamlessly integrate a wider array of rich customer insights and audience data from Adobe Experience Platform with their broader enterprise data in Snowflake. This will accelerate their ability to unlock more holistic insights and activate them with enhanced agility, powering highly personalised engagements with remarkable efficiency," Justin Merickel, Vice President for Analytics and Technology Partners at Adobe, stated.

"Enterprises today face increasing pressure to unify fragmented data and make it AI-ready, and that starts with seamless, scalable integration. The strategic partnership between Box and Snowflake combines the leading platforms for both their unstructured and structured data to use the power of AI to unlock the value of their data like never before. Together, we're removing the complexity of data integrations so customers can maximise value and accelerate outcomes across the entire content lifecycle," Ben Kus, Chief Technology Officer at Box, said.

"Microsoft is collaborating with Snowflake to make data from Microsoft Dataverse, Dynamics 365 apps, and Power Platform apps easily connected across enterprise data ecosystems through Snowflake Openflow. The ready-to-use connectors make data movement fast, effortless, and secure so customers can reach their full data potential to advance meaningful AI development," Nirav Shah, Corporate Vice President, Dataverse, Microsoft, commented.

"Enterprises today are looking to unlock the full potential of their data, wherever it resides, to drive transformative AI initiatives. Our expanded partnership with Snowflake and the introduction of this new, high-speed connector directly addresses this need. By enhancing the interoperability and performance of data connectivity with the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, we are empowering our joint customers to accelerate their data pipelines to gain faster, more actionable insights that can truly move their businesses forward in the AI era," Jeff Pollock, Vice President of Product Management at Oracle, said.

"AI has drastically increased the volume and velocity of data, making it even more imperative for enterprises to maintain full control and governance over their most valuable asset. Snowflake Openflow ensures that fully interoperable data movement is not only possible, but can be secure at the same time. Proofpoint DSPM enables customers to classify sensitive data inline within Openflow and apply Snowflake tags to it, unlocking a more complete, centralised data landscape so they can innovate confidently and securely," Amer Deeba, Group Vice President, Proofpoint DSPM group, explained.

"The new integration with Snowflake Openflow represents an important enhancement in our existing Zero Copy data integration, actively dismantling these barriers. It empowers joint customers with more functionality to seamlessly and securely access and activate all their data in real time, transforming enterprise data to fuel AI-powered applications and intelligent agents across their operations," Nick Johnston, SVP of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Salesforce, remarked.

"As AI adoption increases, there's an increasing need to eliminate data siloes through bi-directional integrations with enterprise data lakes like Snowflake. Through our partnership with Snowflake Openflow and ServiceNow's Workflow Data Network, we're eliminating data siloes so that our customers can reap the benefits of intelligent automation to better power their organisations," Amit Saxena, Vice President and General Manager, Workflow Data Fabric, ServiceNow, said.

"Zendesk powers more than 10,000 AI customers worldwide, delivering real-time, personalised support at scale. Our partnership with Snowflake and the launch of Snowflake Openflow creates an unprecedented, fully-integrated data ecosystem that drives smarter insights and accelerates AI innovation across customer journeys. Together, we're defining the future of AI-powered service and helping businesses transform their customer experience through data-driven intelligence," Tim Marsden, VP of Technology Alliances at Zendesk, commented.