Ep078: Scaling Through Partnerships: Snowflake's Cloud Engineering Success

Through case studies of Graviton implementation and GPU integration, Justin Fitzhugh, Snowflake’s VP of Engineering, demonstrates how cloud-native architecture combined with strategic partnerships can drive technical innovation and build business value.Topics Include:Cloud engineering and AWS partnershipTraditional databases had fixed hardware ratios for compute/storageSnowflake built cloud-native with separated storage and computeCompany has never owned physical infrastructureApplications must be cloud-optimized to leverage elastic scalingSnowflake uses credit system for customer billingCredits loosely based on compute resources providedCompany maintains cloud-agnostic approach across providersInitially aimed for identical pricing across cloud providersNow allows price variation while maintaining consistent experienceConsumption-based revenue model ties to actual usagePerformance improvements can actually decrease revenueCompany tracked ARM's move to data centersInitially skeptical of Graviton performance claimsPorting to ARM required complete pipeline reconstructionDiscovered floating point rounding differences between architecturesAmazon partnership crucial for library optimizationGraviton migration took two years instead of oneAchieved 25% performance gain with 20% cost reductionTeam requested thousands of GPUs within two monthsGPU infrastructure was new territory for SnowflakeNeeded flexible pricing for uncertain future needsSigned three to five-year contracts with flexibilityTeam pivoted from building to fine-tuning modelsPartnership allowed adaptation to business changesEmphasizes importance of leveraging provider expertiseRecommends early engagement with cloud providersBuild relationships before infrastructure needs ariseMaintain personal connections with provider executivesParticipants:Justin Fitzhugh – VP of Engineering, SnowflakeSee how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

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