Snowflake Agrees to Acquire Open Data Integration Platform, Datavolo

Rhea-AI Summary

Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) has announced its agreement to acquire Datavolo, a platform specializing in multimodal data pipeline management. The acquisition aims to enhance Snowflake's capabilities in the 'bronze layer' of data lifecycle and simplify data engineering workloads. Datavolo, powered by Apache NiFi technology used by over 10,000 enterprises, will be integrated into Snowflake's platform to provide a unified connectivity solution for structured and unstructured data. The integration will enable customers to replace complex point-to-point connectors with flexible, reusable pipelines in Snowflake's AI Data Cloud.

Positive

• Strategic expansion into data engineering and integration services
• Access to Apache NiFi technology used by 10,000+ enterprises
• Enhanced capabilities for handling both structured and unstructured data
• Potential growth in public sector business due to Datavolo's federal presence

Negative

• None.

Insights

Technology Strategy Analyst

The strategic acquisition of Datavolo marks a significant expansion of Snowflake's data engineering capabilities, particularly in handling unstructured data - a critical component for AI/ML workloads. The integration of Apache NiFi technology, which already has 10,000+ enterprise users, will substantially enhance Snowflake's connectivity layer and simplify complex data pipeline management.

This move addresses two key market demands: streamlining data engineering workflows and improving unstructured data handling capabilities. The acquisition will help reduce implementation costs and complexity for customers while strengthening Snowflake's position in the public sector, where Apache NiFi has strong adoption. The deal's emphasis on maintaining open-source support also indicates a strategic approach to ecosystem development.

Enterprise Software Analyst

This acquisition directly targets a critical pain point in enterprise data infrastructure - the complex "bronze layer" where raw data ingestion occurs. By integrating Datavolo's capabilities, Snowflake is positioning itself to offer a more complete data lifecycle solution, reducing dependency on third-party ETL tools and potentially lowering total ownership costs for customers.

The ability to deploy within Snowflake VPC or customer VPC environments provides important flexibility for enterprise clients with strict data sovereignty requirements. This flexibility, combined with the proven scalability of Apache NiFi, strengthens Snowflake's competitive position against both cloud hyperscalers and specialized data integration platforms.

Acquisition will supercharge data engineering on Snowflake’s platform with simple, scalable, and cost-effective unstructured data ingestion in the AI Data Cloud

No-Headquarters/BOZEMAN, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Datavolo, the company built to rapidly accelerate the creation, management, and observability of multimodal data pipelines for enterprise AI¹. With this acquisition, Snowflake will deepen its service in the ‘bronze layer’ of the data lifecycle and will deliver a simple way for data engineering teams to integrate all of their enterprise systems with Snowflake’s unified platform, where they can then unlock data for AI and ML, apps and analytics, and leverage the scale, performance, and built-in governance of the AI Data Cloud. Together, Datavolo and Snowflake will both simplify data engineering workloads and deliver unmatched data interoperability and extensibility - a building block for effective enterprise AI.

Snowflake Agrees to Acquire Open Data Integration Platform, Datavolo (Graphic: Business Wire)

“Simplicity and time-to-value are core to Snowflake’s ethos. By bringing Datavolo into the Snowflake fold, we are expanding how much of the data lifecycle Snowflake captures - unlocking both simplicity and cost savings for our customers, without any sacrifice to data extensibility,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake. “We are excited to have the Datavolo team join Snowflake as we accelerate what is the best platform for enterprise data - unstructured and structured, batch and streaming - and dedicated to the success of the open source community.”

Powered by Apache NiFi, a project for secure data processing and distribution originally open sourced by the National Security Agency (NSA) and now used by more than 10,000 enterprises, Datavolo provides a single platform for automating and managing both structured and unstructured data flows between various enterprise data sources. Once fully integrated into the Snowflake platform, Datavolo will form the basis of Snowflake’s open and extensible connectivity platform for structured and unstructured data, allowing Snowflake to further its offering at the “bronze layer” for data engineering workloads. Users will be able to replace the complexity and maintenance burden of single-use, point-to-point connectors with fast, flexible, reusable pipelines that allow customers to more seamlessly move unstructured and structured data from cloud and on-premise sources to Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. The fully managed connectivity layer can be seamlessly deployed inside Snowflake Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and in customers’ own VPC through a Bring Your Own Cloud model.

“Data engineering at scale can be incredibly costly and complex, and our aim has always been to simplify experiences for our customers so they can achieve value faster,” said Joe Witt, Co-founder and CEO of Datavolo and co-creator of Apache NiFi. “By joining forces with Snowflake, we can empower our customers with the immense scale and radical simplicity of Snowflake’s platform, ultimately unlocking data engineering for more users.”

With its wide use across federal organizations, Snowflake’s acquisition of Datavolo also aims to accelerate Snowflake’s business in the public sector. Snowflake plans to continue to maintain & nurture the Apache NiFi project with the close of the acquisition, deepening its support of open standards and empowering both Snowflake customers and the NiFi community with full interoperability, regardless of where their data resides. NiFi users can benefit not only from Snowflake’s easy, efficient, and trusted data foundation for AI, but also from the unified security and governance of Snowflake’s fully managed platform.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release relates to a pending acquisition of Datavolo, Inc. (“Datavolo”) by Snowflake. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding the anticipated benefits of the acquisition, and the anticipated impacts of the acquisition on our business, products, financial results, and other aspects of our and Datavolo’s operations. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to be materially different from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors include, but are not limited to: the effect of the announcement of the acquisition on the ability of Snowflake or Datavolo to retain key personnel or maintain relationships with customers, vendors, developers, community members, and other business partners; risks that the acquisition disrupts current plans and operations; the ability of the parties to consummate the acquisition on a timely basis or at all; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to consummation of the acquisition; our ability to successfully integrate Datavolo’s operations; our and Datavolo’s ability to execute on our business strategies relating to the acquisition and realize expected benefits and synergies; and our ability to compete effectively, including in response to actions our competitors may take following announcement of the acquisition. Further information on these and additional risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those included in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are included under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2024 and other filings and reports we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Moreover, both we and Datavolo operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks may emerge from time to time. It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the acquisition, or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available to us at the time those statements are made and/or our management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation, and do not intend, to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Learn More:

• Learn more about Snowflake and Datavolo.
• Check out Snowflake’s Essential Guide to Data Engineering to learn how to build a modern data engineering practice.
• See why Snowflake is the platform of choice for Data Engineering workloads here.
• Stay on top of the latest news and announcements from Snowflake on LinkedIn and Twitter / X.

About Snowflake

Snowflake makes enterprise AI easy, efficient and trusted. More than 10,000 companies around the globe, including hundreds of the world’s largest, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to share data, build applications, and power their business with AI. The era of enterprise AI is here. Learn more at snowflake.com (NYSE: SNOW).

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1} Closing of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241120987393/en/

Media Contact

Danica Stanczak

Global Corporate Communications, Snowflake

press@snowflake.com

Source: Snowflake Inc.

FAQ

What is the purpose of Snowflake's (SNOW) acquisition of Datavolo?

Snowflake is acquiring Datavolo to enhance its data engineering capabilities, specifically in the 'bronze layer' of data lifecycle, and to provide simpler, more scalable unstructured data ingestion in the AI Data Cloud.

How will Datavolo's technology integrate with Snowflake (SNOW)?

Datavolo will be integrated into Snowflake's platform to provide a unified connectivity solution, replacing point-to-point connectors with flexible, reusable pipelines for moving both structured and unstructured data.

What technology powers Datavolo's platform that Snowflake (SNOW) is acquiring?

Datavolo is powered by Apache NiFi, a secure data processing and distribution project originally open-sourced by the NSA and currently used by more than 10,000 enterprises.