Snowflake has Momentum with AWS & Microsoft…Why Google may not be Next
Aug 26, 2023
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Discussion on the effects of cloud optimization on cloud companies, Snowflake's renewal with Microsoft, Google's focus on building its own data cloud stack, and a deceleration in spend momentum for Snowflake. The chapter also explores Snowflake's spending momentum and data consolidation challenges, the evolution of cloud apps and the data stack, Snowflake's opportunity on Google Cloud and the role of DevOps, Google's efforts to extend application services and control plane beyond Google Cloud, and differentiating Google Cloud by emphasizing solutions.
Snowflake's contract renewal with Microsoft will improve its traction with Azure, competing against Databricks.
Google's focus on building its own data cloud stack may hinder support for Snowflake's aspirations.
Deep dives
Effects of cloud optimization on cloud companies
Recent earnings and survey data indicate that the negative impact of cloud optimization on cloud companies is reaching its peak. Snowflake's recent contract renewal with Microsoft is expected to improve its traction with Microsoft Azure, which has favored Databricks in the past. Google, however, is focused on building its own data cloud stack rather than supporting Snowflake.
Snowflake's spending trends and data preparation
Data from Snowflake's financial analyst day contradict the assumption that customers are moving data engineering and preparation work outside of Snowflake due to economic reasons. Snowflake's new Snowpark feature and the use of Python programming provide a more cost-effective solution compared to alternatives like Databricks and AWS EMR. The data shows that a significant number of Snowflake accounts also have Snowpark, indicating its popularity.
Snowflake's traction with global 2000 accounts
While Snowflake has seen a deceleration in spending momentum, the ETR data suggests a bottoming trend in global 2000 accounts. However, larger customers are renewing at commit levels, indicating that Snowflake is capturing significant spending from these accounts. There may still be perceived cost advantages to performing batch workloads and data preparation outside of Snowflake.
Snowflake's presence in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
Snowflake has a strong presence in both AWS and Azure accounts, with spending momentum around 50%. However, its presence in Google Cloud accounts is lower, potentially due to the popularity of Google's BigQuery. Google is working on expanding its data stack to offer more competition in the market, although Snowflake's opportunity on Google Cloud platform may be smaller.
Recent earnings prints from Amazon and Snowflake, along with new survey data, have provided additional context on top of the two events that Snowflake and Databricks each hosted last June. Specifically, we believe that the effects of cloud optimization are still being felt but are nearing the end of peak negative impact on cloud companies. Snowflake’s recent renewal with Microsoft better aligns sales incentives and should improve the company’s traction with Microsoft Azure, a platform that has long favored Databricks. Google however remains a different story as its agenda is to build out its own data cloud stack, rather than supporting Snowflake’s aspirations.
In this Breaking Analysis, we clarify some of our previous assumptions around Snowflake economics. We’ll dig into the three U.S. based hyperscale platforms with ETR data to better understand the footprint that key data platforms have in those cloud accounts; and, ahead of Google Cloud Next, we’ll preview how we believe Google is evolving its cloud and data stacks to compete more effectively in the market.