A Cloudera, a hybrid platform for data, analytics, and AI, announced integration with Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, to bring businesses a hybrid and open data lakehouse, powered by Apache Iceberg. Now, organizations can leverage the combination of Cloudera and Snowflake—two leading tools for data ingestion, processing, and consumption—to achieve a single source of truth for information, analytics, and AI workloads.
Data is an institution's most powerful asset. It drives informed decision-making, provides competitive advantage, and reveals innovation opportunities. A 2022 study by KX and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) revealed that 80% of companies report higher revenue due to real-time data analytics, and 98% report an increase in positive customer sentiment due to data utilization. However, to fully leverage the power of data, companies need a single, unified source to store, manage, and govern all corporate information, regardless of where it resides.
Cloudera has extended its Open Data Lakehouse interoperability to Snowflake, enabling joint customers continuous access to the Cloudera Data Lakehouse via its Apache Iceberg REST Catalog. Customers benefit from an optimized data platform powered by Apache Iceberg, which allows them to ingest, prepare, and process their data with best-in-class tools. Furthermore, Snowflake users can now query data stored in Cloudera's Ozone, an on-premises object storage solution compatible with AWS S3, directly from Snowflake. Customers now have access to all major formats through a cohesive collaboration, on-premises and as a platform, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).
In addition to enabling greater interoperability between the two systems, Cloudera customers will experience the ease of Snowflake's Business Intelligence engine. The engine can access data from Cloudera's open data lakehouse without requiring data duplication or transfer, reducing complexity, streamlining operations, and maintaining data integrity.
Furthermore, this collaboration leads to a reduction in the integrated total cost of ownership for businesses. The elimination of data and metadata silos, and the streamlining of data pipelines and operational efforts are key factors in this cost reduction. These improvements help deliver analytics and AI use cases at scale more efficiently, further enhancing the value proposition for companies using Cloudera and Snowflake. This strategic integration not only optimizes analytical workflows but also provides a robust framework for organizations to drive innovation and gain competitive advantages in their respective markets.
Additional benefits of this integration include:
- Managed Iceberg Tables: Iceberg tables enhance data performance and reliability, enabling joint customers to unlock the full potential of their data through improved organization, faster queries, and simplified data management, regardless of where the data is stored;
- Best-in-Class Engines: Joint customers benefit from leading engines for ingesting, preparing, and managing their data, enabling seamless management of artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence workloads;
- Unified Security and Governance: This integration consolidates data security and governance throughout its lifecycle. Joint customers can apply consistent security measures, track data lineage and movement, and manage metadata on a single platform, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
“By extending our open data lakehouse capabilities through Apache Iceberg to Snowflake, we are enabling our customers not only to optimize their data workflows but also to unlock new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and growth,” stated Abhas Ricky, Director of Strategy at Cloudera. “This will help customers simplify their data architecture, minimize data pipelines, and reduce the total cost of ownership of their data assets, while simultaneously reducing security risks. Together, Snowflake and Cloudera are bringing the next era of data-driven decision-making to all modern organizations.”
“Apache Iceberg is a leading choice for customers seeking open data standards, and Cloudera has been an integral part of the Iceberg project,” said Tarik Dwiek, Head of Technology Alliances at Snowflake. “Our partnership expands what is possible for customers who choose standardization with Iceberg tables. We are excited to break down silos and offer a unified hybrid data cloud experience with cross-functional analytics for all our customers.”
“Through this collaboration, customers gain access to a robust, unified data management platform that provides a single source of truth for all their data, whether in the cloud or on-premises,” stated Sanjeev Mohan, Analyst at SanjMo. “This enables them to streamline and secure their data operations, while efficiently analyzing and extracting insights across the entire data lifecycle—from ingestion to AI and analytics. It is a strategic shift by two industry giants to partner in a way that will deliver immediate value to businesses.”
Furthermore, reaffirming its commitment to advancing Iceberg adoption, Cloudera is pleased to announce the technical preview of Cloudera Lakehouse Optimizer. This new service autonomously optimizes your Iceberg tables, further reducing costs and significantly improving your lakehouse performance. To learn more about this technical preview, click here.
