‘X’ Marks the Data: Alation Is the Treasure Map to the Snowflake Data Cloud

By Matt Turner

Published on June 3, 2022

Why We’re the Treasure Map to the Snowflake Data Cloud

Next week, the Alation team will be at the Snowflake Summit. We’re excited to join this amazing event that will summon 12,000+ data cloud enthusiasts to Las Vegas!

Our theme for this event is: The Treasure Map to the Data Cloud. Visit us at Booth 2009 at the Summit. We’ll be easy to find … just follow the map!

And we have a lot to share. Alation has been working hard to help all Snowflake users get the most out of their Data Cloud. Here is some of what we’ve been up to.

Data Governance for Every Workload

Alation helps everyone understand and leverage their data by making that data accessible to everyone. Knowing how to use the data is essential. For teams moving to the data cloud to take advantage of new capabilities and drive innovation, this data intelligence can be a superpower.

Anthony Seraphin at Texas Mutual and I talked about this on a TDWI webinar, Maximize Your Migration, last fall. Anthony cited breaking down silos and centralizing compliance and security as two big reasons for moving to the Snowflake Data Cloud.

Involving stakeholders at all levels of the business was key. To ensure success, Anthony and his team enlisted business owners to participate in a Cloud Data Stewardship program and used Alation’s active data governance to make governance visible for every data workload. A governance framework also surfaced the most popular, used, and useful data, which Anthony’s team prioritized for migration. For this reason, Anthony’s summary advice for anyone using Snowflake was that “moving to the data cloud requires a strong data governance foundation.”

This important role of data governance in making the most of the Snowflake data cloud is why Alation is the 2021 Data Governance Partner of the Year! With over 100 joint customers, and our Snowflake specific features in our Data Governance App, we’re making sure that data governance doesn’t hold you back and is, instead, a competitive advantage.

Alation Is the Treasure Map to Your Data Cloud

Once organizations make the jump to the Snowflake Data Cloud, there is still a lot to do to ensure everyone in your organization can take advantage of new innovation opportunities. Snowflake helps everyone break down silos, bring data together, and share data. To take advantage of these capabilities, it’s crucial that organizations know their data. That means knowing where data is, who the data experts are, and how it can be used — all key functionalities Alation brings to the Data Cloud.

In fact, this is such an important piece for Data Cloud success that Jeff Lee, Snowflake’s Alliance Director, told the Alation team in February that “Alation is the treasure map to our customers’ data.” As you can tell from our theme for Summit, the idea really stuck!

So, Who Benefits From Our Partnership?

The proof is in the joint customers using Alation and Snowflake together, in these key industries:

Financial Services

In Financial Services the Data Cloud is supporting real data innovation. Two customers at Snowflake Summit will share how Alation and Snowflake support innovation in their sector:

Kayleigh Lavorini from Fifth Third Bank will present “Building a Data Mesh: Fifth Third Bank’s Data Strategy Journey”. Make sure to catch it Tuesday, June 14, at 3:30 p.m.
Theresa Peachey from Travelers Insurance will join me for a theater session, “The Treasure Map to Your Data Cloud with Travelers and Alation.”

Alation and Snowflake are driving innovation in other key industries as well:

Retail

In Retail, organizations use our joint solution to better connect with customers. Some of these companies have over 100 years of history and data intelligence is helping our users find great data and properly put it into action.

Healthcare

Healthcare data is key to improving patient outcomes and adjusting to new business dynamics. Cutting-edge healthcare companies use Alation and Snowflake to improve the patient experience.

Media

In Media, data leaders are using our joint solution to personalize experiences and create targeted ads. This can lead to an explosion of data in some cases (one customer shared that they faced more than 200,000 tables in Snowflake!). Having the guide to that data and the governance to make sure the right data is used is key to success.

Technology

Technology innovators are pushing the limits of data usage to improve products and experiences. This includes Snowflake itself! One session we’re all looking forward to is “Snowflake on Snowflake: How and Why We Built our Marketing Analytics Ecosystem,” which details how the modern data stack of Alation, Snowflake, DBT, and Fivetran power Snowflake’s own marketing analytics.

Alation and Snowflake Are Better Together

We’ve also had some fun along the way. For our presentation at the Snowflake sales kickoff earlier this year, we tapped Alation’s own rap master Anthony Zumpano to create an unusual opening segment. We can now all enjoy “a few words about the Snowflake + Alation partnership.” This includes “hard truths for every data analyst” and the result: “data catalog users from nation to nation are happier than ever, thanks to Snowflake and Alation!”

Don’t Miss Out!

Come join our team at the Snowflake Summit (find us at booth #2009!). Not only do we have great customers sharing their stories, we’ve got three dedicated demo stations showing: