Snowflake Ramps Up ‘Powered By’ Program Recruitment, Capabilities

Powered by Snowflake, which expands the traditional definition of ‘partner,’ now has more than 100 companies developing SaaS data solutions on the Snowflake data cloud platform.

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Data cloud services provider Snowflake is using its Build 2021 developer summit this week to accelerate the progress of its Powered by Snowflake initiative that assists partners who develop SaaS solutions on the company’s data cloud platform.

The Powered by Snowflake program, launched in June, now has more than 100 members and channel chief Colleen Kapase (pictured) sees that number growing exponentially over the next year.

“I think our biggest opportunity – and our biggest challenge – for Powered by Snowflake is that almost every organization out there is developing their own applications now,” said Colleen Kapase, senior vice president of worldwide partner and alliances, in an interview with CRN.

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Powered by Snowflake is part of the Snowflake Partner Network, the company’s partner program that debuted in June 2020. Powered by Snowflake bends the definition of “partner” somewhat in that it is open to any business or organization that develops cloud solutions on Snowflake that in some way serve their customers.

The 100 members of Powered by Snowflake today include ISVs, technology partners and systems integrators – about 30 percent of Powered by Snowflake members are also part of the Snowflake Partner Network program, according to Kapase.

But participants also include other IT vendors and even what some would define as customers who are developing data sharing services on the Snowflake platform, which they, in turn, provide to their customers. They include investment management services company BlackRock, grocery shopping service provider Instacart, cloud security tech vendor Lacework and advertising software developer VideoAmp.

“Every one of our customers can become a partner through Powered By Snowflake,” Kapase said. “Yes, we’re selling to these organization. But we’re also selling with these organizations. It changes the game of, ‘What are you? Are you a customer or are you a partner?’ Well, the reality is, they’re both.”

Such a relationship requires high levels of tech support and information sharing about product development, the channel chief said. “They’re literally taking a bet, putting their product on our product. And that’s a different level of relationship [and] trust.”

Cloud security service provider Lacework has built a data sharing solution on Snowflake and provides security data services through its VAR and systems integrator partners. Lacework began working with Snowflake not long after Lacework’s 2015 founding, and in an interview with CRN, Lacework president and chief revenue officer Andy Byron called Snowflake “by far, our largest technology partnership.”

“There’s just a lot of different benefits we receive from this partnership,” Byron said. “Our engineering teams are connected, our product teams are connected – and really this is all in an effort to bring the best solution to the market. We have a lot of happy joint customers.”

Lacework was one of the first companies to join the Powered by Snowflake program, although the two companies’ joint engineering and product development work precedes that.

In addition to ongoing product development and tech support, Byron expects the Powered by Snowflake program to create more go-to-market and joint branding opportunities for both companies. “As we roll out this program and have more field synergies, we’re having a lot of partner conversations as well,” he said, noting that Snowflake and Lacework share a number channel partners.

The Powered by Snowflake program offers high levels of product engineering assistance to partners developing software-as-a-service applications, development tools, best practices, and post-development tech support. The program also includes go-to-market assistance and Snowflake account managers receive training on working with participating companies.

“It’s a unique program,” Kapase said. “It’s about helping companies that are building their own SaaS applications to drive scale, drive data security and drive speed-to-value.”

“This is going to continue to get investment from Snowflake and I think we’re on a long journey with this program,” said Kapase. “We have a long roadmap of additional things that we want to see come through this program – the whole company is leaning into this from an engineering standpoint, tech support standpoint [and] marketing perspective.”

The Powered by Snowflake program also aligns with the data cloud service provider’s growing focus on providing data services for specific vertical industries, as outlined by CEO Frank Slootman during the company’s recent fiscal 2022 second quarter earnings call.

With the focus on providing development assistance and technical support, the Powered by Snowflake doesn’t include partner tiers, revenue goals or other components found in traditional partner programs, Kapase said.