Consistent with the practice of keeping all customer data secure inside a data cloud, Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman announced during his keynote—to enthusiastic applause—that the company has added a secure sandbox for Python in the Snowpark developer framework.
Previously, Snowpark supported workload development in either the Scala or Java programming languages. However, Python has become the language of choice for data scientists, data engineers and application developers, so there was growing demand for Snowflake to create secure Python workloads that run within its data cloud.
During a one-on-one interview, Christian Kleinerman, senior vice president of product at Snowflake, explained that moving Python workloads into the data cloud eliminates the burdensome requirement of certifying the security of individual Python workloads. Kleinerman also noted that adding the Python runtime to Snowpark took only 1% of the required effort. Securing it took the rest.
Snowflake Adds A Secure Python Sandbox To Its
Data Cloud
Professional Climber
I was probably the most satisfied that I’ve ever been in climbing. … All this effort paid off.”
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ALEX HONNOLD
After he decided to free climb the face of the El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park, a feat never before accomplished, professional climber Alex Honnold spent the next nine years preparing for the nearly four-hour ascent.
He spent seven years mentally bolstering himself to train and the next two years getting his body in physical shape for the climb. Honnold became a
near-vegetarian and cut back on dessert—“and I love dessert,” he told the crowd during his Snowflake Summit keynote.
“No one’s ever done anything like this. There’s no manual for this,” he explained.
After training, Honnold needed to find the right free-climbing route up El Capitan’s face. He had to memorize every move ahead of time because one wrong move would have sent him falling thousands of feet to his death. The years of preparation and training paid off in 2017. Honnold’s efforts were documented in the Oscar-winning National Geographic documentary film, “Free Solo.”
The Only Way To Scale An Unclimbable Wall Is To Prepare
Unistore is a new workload for the Snowflake Data Cloud that employs a hybrid table database structure to support concurrent single-row database queries at transactional speeds and column access for analytical queries.
Previously, it has not been possible to use one database structure for both. Snowflake Data Cloud customers, including Adobe, IQVIA, Novartis, UiPath and Wolt, have been experimenting with Unistore during a private preview. Adobe uses Unistore’s fast transactional capabilities to allow Adobe Campaign customers to quickly deliver marketing experiences—across a wide range of channels—that are based on consumer actions.
“Running Adobe Campaign on Snowflake has enabled us to offer unparalleled speed and scale to our customers,” said Nick Hall, senior director of Adobe Campaign & Managed Cloud Services. There’s another bonus, according to Hall: Adobe’s development teams are realizing a 50x productivity gain when using the Unistore workload to prepare deliverables for Adobe Campaign customers.
Unistore Storage Format Delivers Transactional Speed With Analytical Depth
Before becoming the senior vice president of private sector engagement at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Sheila Bonini spent 15 years at McKinsey & Company as a senior expert for the Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice and then two years as CEO of The Sustainability Consortium.
Now, she oversees a WWF team for private sector engagement that collaborates with more than 100 companies on sustainability projects. Bonini’s team is helping WWF achieve its primary mission:
saving iconic endangered species such as pandas, tigers, rhinos and sea turtles.
“The biggest threats today are climate change and unsustainable food production,” said Bonini during a collaboration keynote at the Snowflake Summit. “On the positive side, restoration of forests and ecosystems also sequesters carbon. So not only do we have the opportunity to stop the negatives, but also to drive positive change by focusing on the nature part of the equation. Data plays a big role. … You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Data Is Helping WWF Save
The Planet
Senior Vice President, Private Sector Engagement, World Wildlife Fund
In the past, it was sort of important that companies did no harm. … Today, what we’re looking for is leadership.”
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SHEILA BONINI