At Snowflake Summit 2023, Snowflake announced the general availability of the Marketplace Capacity Drawdown Program (only available to organizations located in the U.S., excluding those in Florida, Kansas, or Michigan. See documentation for additional program criteria). This opens a whole new buying option: eligible Snowflake customers can now purchase third-party data and Snowflake Native Apps seamlessly on Snowflake Marketplace from across clouds with their Snowflake Capacity commitment. 

Why is this important? According to Explorium’s 2022 State of External Data Procurement survey, only 40% of respondents said their organization had a plan to source and integrate external data. A holistic enterprise data strategy doesn’t just allow the organization to easily turn internal data into business insights, but should also include a straightforward pathway to incorporate external data sources. This ensures that both business decisions and AI/ML models are incorporating all relevant factors—-whether they be internal or external—for more precise analyses and results. 

With the launch of Snowflake Native Apps on Snowflake Marketplace in public preview on AWS, customers can purchase applications that run directly in the consumer’s Snowflake account. The consumer’s data stays under their control—they no longer need to move data to the provider’s applications. Snowflake Native Apps encompass solutions such as data clean rooms, data curation and enrichment, cost and governance, connectors, and advanced analytics use cases. 

When analytics and data science teams identify a data set or Snowflake Native App that enriches, augments, or improves their data analysis, it can take some time before the teams actually start working with the external content. This time period is often drawn out by procurement cycles: the new vendor needs to be approved and onboarded, legal terms reviewed, pricing negotiated, and payment logistics sorted out. 

Teams can shorten the procurement process and start their analysis sooner when they pay with committed Snowflake spend (i.e., Snowflake Capacity commitment). The procurement process is simplified because:

• New vendors don’t have to be onboarded because the billing counterpart is Snowflake, not the third-party provider of the data set or app. 
• Companies don’t have to figure out payment logistics as Snowflake simply adds the respective products to the customers’ invoices. Snowflake pays the providers on behalf of the customer.
• Providers can use Snowflake’s Standard Terms of Service on their listings, which removes the need for further legal approvals since the terms were previously reviewed and accepted.

Streamlining these steps in the procurement process allows data teams to realize value from third-party content more quickly, and supports organizations’ external data sourcing strategies. Snowflake Marketplace not only solves for the discovery and integration of external data sources, but also accelerates the procurement cycle, especially for those teams that don’t purchase third-party content every day.   

Capacity customers have the option to enroll in the Marketplace Capacity Drawdown Program as part of a new contract, contract renewal, or amendment. Speak to your Snowflake account manager to verify the status of your program enrollment. For full program terms, please see documentation. 

To purchase a listing with your Snowflake Capacity commitment, go to Snowflake Marketplace to find the listing you’d like to buy. You can use the search bar to look for specific terms or find relevant listings via filters such as categories or business needs. To find listings you can purchase with your Capacity commitment, filter for listings that are “Paid with Free Trial.”

The provider may have also shared a listing directly with you, which you will find in “Private Sharing” in the “Data” tab in Snowflake. Providers frequently share listings directly with consumers once the required content and pricing have been agreed upon, as listings on Snowflake Marketplace are standardized and may not always suit your specific needs.

On the listings, click “buy” or “subscribe.” The product is now directly installed in your account. If the product is charged on a usage basis, you will only incur charges once you use the product, not if you’ve only installed it. If the pricing is subscription based, you will be charged as soon as you install it, irrespective of your usage. 

Apart from paying with your Capacity commitment, you can define additional payment methods such as credit card, ACH, or wire transfers in “Billing & Terms” in the “Admin” tab in Snowflake. For more details on additional payment methods, please see the documentation. 

You can review purchases made with your Capacity commitment at any time through the usage dashboards in Snowflake. Refer to Exploring Overall Cost in Snowflake for more details.

Snowflake Marketplace is the place to find, try, and buy the data and Snowflake Native Apps needed to answer pressing business questions and drive innovative business solutions. Now it’s even easier to purchase the products you want from providers across clouds directly on Snowflake Marketplace using your Snowflake Capacity commitment. For more information, check out our solution brief on Snowflake Marketplace for Data & App Buyers and refer to the documentation for further details on paying for listings. 

Note: This blog post may contain information provided by third-parties. Snowflake has not independently verified this information, and usage of this information does not mean or imply that Snowflake has adopted this information as its own or independently verified its accuracy.