The path to Cloud Value: Next-Generation Native App Development with Snowflake and BlueCloud

Executive Summary:

This blog explores the benefits of native app development, provides an overview of Snowflake Native apps, and highlights BlueCloud's essential role in building these apps, helping organizations unlock the speed and agility of the cloud.

Did you know?

The global cloud native application market size is projected to expand from USD 6.5 billion in 2023 to USD 20.1 billion by 2032, at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2%. (Source: Allied Market Research)

Over 95% of applications will run on cloud-native platforms due to the numerous benefits of cloud-native development by 2025. (Source: Gartner)  

Companies like Netflix and Uber are already adopting a cloud-native approach, managing hundreds or even thousands of services in production and deploying them continuously.

Cloud native app development is experiencing a surge and there are a few factors that contribute to this major shift: increased cloud adoption, the growing demand for DevOps and microservices practices which are heavily supported by cloud native apps and the need for a scalable and flexible IT infrastructure.  

In this blog, we will dive deeper into the benefits of native app development, provide a high-level overview of what Snowflake Native apps are and explain BlueCloud’s critical role in building Snowflake native apps and helping organizations unlock the speed and the agility of cloud.  

Why Build Cloud-Native Applications

Native app development builds software for specific operating systems (iOS or Android) using dedicated tools, optimizing performance and user experience. Unlike hybrid apps, which use one codebase, native app development offers superior speed, responsiveness, and is better suited for complex applications.  

Native applications are often built-in for the cloud so organizations can speed up their time to market, and meet user demands for rapid responsiveness, zero downtime, and innovation.  

Introducing the Snowflake Native Application Framework

The Snowflake Native Application Framework is a new way to build, distribute, and use applications within the Snowflake Data Cloud.  

It enables application providers to create apps using Snowflake’s core functionalities and deploy them directly within a customer’s Snowflake account. With Snowflake Native Application framework, providers can monetize their apps through the Snowflake Marketplace, giving them access to a global customer base. Snowflake Marketplace enables over 1,000+ organizations to deliver and monetize applications within the Data Cloud.

The real strength of native apps lies in their deployment within the customer’s account, allowing the customer to maintain control over their data while safeguarding the provider’s intellectual property.

Providers benefits

For providers, the Native Application Framework offers significant benefits across the entire app lifecycle:

• Developers can leverage Snowflake’s infrastructure, including features like always-on availability, global collaboration, and native governance, to focus on creating powerful applications without managing underlying infrastructure.  

• By publishing their apps in Snowflake marketplace, providers get access to thousands of Snowflake customers, which simplifies sales and distribution of their apps

• The framework's deployment model accelerates application deployment, reduces risks, shortens sales cycles, and improves margins by using customers' compute resources

Customer benefits

Customers also gain major advantages from the framework:

• They retain full control of their data, reducing silos and improving governance by not having to share it with application providers.  

• Customers can securely manage data interactions, with granular permissions and role-based access controls.

• Customers can dramatically simplify and shorten application procurement cycles from months to just a few clicks.  

• Snowflake Marketplace simplifies the process of discovering and implementing applications, helping customers quickly put their data to work.

Snowflake Native apps span a range of use cases such as financial analytics, identity resolution, and cost management, showcasing the framework’s potential to deliver value to both providers and customers.

How BlueCloud Empowers Snowflake Native App Development

BlueCloud supports the development of Snowflake native apps through two key approaches:

1. Domain-oriented native app development

2. Development of native apps like BlueInsights, which help data scientists interact seamlessly with AI and accelerate model development

Domain-Oriented Native App Development with Snowflake

In traditional app development, delivering advanced data services that enable interactivity for users would be cumbersome and resource intensive.

For instance, one of our commercial real estate customers needed a more interactive way for stakeholders to visualize and interact with data. We recommended building a Snowflake native app to streamline the process, making it more efficient and easier to manage.

BlueCloud’s Approach

BlueCloud takes a strategic approach to supporting the development of smart and tailored Snowflake native apps, helping customers fully leverage the Snowflake platform’s capabilities and simplify complex data processes.

By utilizing the Snowflake Native Application Framework, we transform data delivery for our clients, empowering them to incorporate cutting-edge features like generative AI and advanced predictive machine learning (ML) into their apps. This shift not only simplifies complex tasks but also empowers businesses to drive better decision-making.

Native apps in action: Revolutionizing retail advertising with AI-driven data-rich insights

One of our clients, a global leader in audience measurement and analytics, and personalized marketing leverages AI and ML to provide actionable insights and drive effective marketing strategies for its clients.

The client approached BlueCloud to help them build an AI-powered and highly customized solution for streamlined data management and actionable insights to ultimately improve their customer engagement and ROI.  

Our team used the Snowflake platform to architect and develop a Snowflake native application and LLM solution that provides advanced data processing and analysis capabilities.

The first step was designing the technical architecture for both their Snowflake native app and large language model (LLM) use case. We worked closely with the client to understand their detailed requirements and translate them into a robust technical framework, providing ongoing advisory support throughout the implementation process.

The app’s user interface allows for data input, filtering, and result generation, while the backend seamlessly orchestrates workflows. Once thoroughly tested, the app will be deployed on the Snowflake Marketplace, providing the client with a scalable, efficient solution to drive revenue and maintain a competitive edge in the advertising industry.

Advancing Data Modeling with BlueInsights

BlueInsights is a Snowflake native app designed to empower companies, especially in advertising and retail, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) with advanced AI and data analytics.  

Built on Snowflake infrastructure, it integrates seamlessly into the Snowflake environment, allowing businesses to generate insights, and interact with their data as a data scientist would.  

BlueInsights leverages Snowflake Cortex AI, offering a powerful frontend that simplifies AI model development and data discovery for users, even those without technical expertise.

Key Strenghts of BlueInsights

For industries like retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG), which often struggle with siloed data, BlueInsights serves as a game-changer. It helps companies extract and analyze enterprise-wide data, monitor and optimize their campaigns, ensuring they can harness the full potential of their data for more accurate and impactful outcomes.

Native apps in action: Transforming media campaign measurement with BlueInsights

BlueInsights will play a pivotal role in delivering two AI initiatives for a global leader in audience measurement and analytics.  

The project focuses on harnessing the power of Snowflake Cortex AI and Snowpark ML to drive cutting-edge solutions for anomaly detection and data profiling. BlueInsights will help the client build and integrate AI-driven models directly into their Snowflake environment, transforming their approach to audience analytics.

Here’s how BlueInsights helped achieve these goals:

• Anomaly detection: BlueInsights helps develop models that detect anomalies within the client’s data. By utilizing Snowpark ML and Cortex LLM functions, the platform enables advanced scripts and stored procedures that analyze data distributions, detect irregularities, and assess quality metrics—all within the Snowflake ecosystem.  

• Data profiling: BlueInsights allows the client to perform detailed data profiling, cleansing, and transformation tasks. It enables them to analyze large datasets efficiently, flagging inconsistencies and ensuring that the data meets the high standards required for accurate analytics. With Snowflake’s scalability and BlueInsights' AI functionalities, the client will be able to assess quality data with greater precision, making informed decisions based on accurate insights.

Our goal is to build a comprehensive AI-driven solution, backed by custom dashboards and BI tools to visualize results and recommendations that will unlock the full potential of the client’s data, enabling them to deliver better audience insights and improve overall media campaign effectiveness.

Learn more about how BlueInsights and Snowflake Cortex AI empower organizations to talk to their data.