Data integration is deceptively complex. Considerations include scoping and scaling infrastructure, ensuring availability, recovering from failures and maintaining the system in response to changing data sources and business needs. Many common data integration tools offer frameworks for solving these tasks but still demand a considerable degree of engineering work from end users 

The Fivetran automated data movement platform automatically, reliably and securely centralizes data from hundreds of SaaS applications and databases into the Snowflake Data Cloud. By combining Fivetran and Snowflake, you gain the following capabilities:

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How Fivetran and Snowflake work together

Fivetran seamlessly integrates with the Snowflake ecosystem, performing a critical role

in moving data into a data lake or warehouse. Snowflake provides a destination (or query engine) for the data, some governance tools (Horizon), developer tools (Snowpark and Streamlit) and AI capabilities (Cortex).

Using Fivetran and several tools in the Snowflake ecosystem, you can follow a straightforward workflow for data applications of all kinds.

For conventional analytics and business intelligence, you can:

1. Use Fivetran to integrate data into the Snowflake Data Cloud.
2. Use Fivetran, dbt and/or SnowSQL to transform data into analytics-ready data models.
3. Use third-party business intelligence platforms and/or Snowpark with Python and Jupyter Notebooks to produce reports and dashboards.

For AI/ML applications, you can:

1. Use Fivetran to integrate data into the Snowflake Data Cloud.
2. Use Fivetran, dbt and/or SnowSQL to transform data into analytics-ready data models.
3. Use Cortex to set up ML or RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) models.some text
   1. Cortex natively supports off-the-shelf machine learning models, such as for forecasting, anomaly detection, root cause analysis and classification.
   2. Cortex also enables RAG by allowing you to embed data as vectors into the vector database of your choice.
4. Use Snowpark to develop your application backend on the secure Snowflake platform using the languages and libraries of your choice, with minimal development overhead.

Use Streamlit to quickly stand up an interface for users to interact with — again, with minimal development overhead.

This combination of platforms and tools enables you to build the full range of analytics and AI/ML applications:

• Curated, white-glove, real-time analytics – Data science is a difficult profession and talent is scarce. You can provide "insights as a service" for customers who choose to forgo building analytics capabilities in-house.
  
• Data aggregation and sharing services – You may gain valuable insights by collecting data from across a market, industry, supply chain, etc.
  
• Personalization and recommendation – You can use behavioral, psychographic and other data for decision support.
  
• Automation – You can use data to trigger all kinds of automatic behavior within your organization’s operations and the goods and services you bring to market.
  
• Generative AI of all kinds – Generative AI has the potential to become a phenomenally powerful productivity aide as well as the backbone for a wide range of innovative products, including:
  
  • Chatbots for customer assistance and internal helpdesks
  • Copilots for accelerating the production of code, documentation and other assets
  • Diagnostic services and other tools for identifying obscure patterns
  • Rapid brainstorming, design and prototyping tools

In short, with Fivetran and Snowflake, the world of data is your oyster. The types of data applications you can build are limited only by your imagination.

For functionality not directly supported by the Snowflake ecosystem, many third-party providers partner with and seamlessly integrate with the Data Cloud.

Getting started with Fivetran and Snowflake

There are two ways to get started with Fivetran:

1. Through Snowflake Partner Connect via your Snowflake dashboard. Recommended!
2. Through fivetran.com.

Here are step-by-step instructions for getting started with Fivetran through Snowflake:

Step one: Log in to your Snowflake account.

Step two: Under Data Products, select Partner Connect and search for Fivetran.

Step three: Select Fivetran and connect. Fivetran will auto-create an extra-small data warehouse inside of Snowflake to pipe your data into.

Step four: Once the account has been created, a pop-up will appear that states the account is ready to be activated. Select Activate.

Step five: After activation, you will be prompted to create a password before selecting Start Free Trial. No credit card is required to sign up for the free trial and use Fivetran for 14 days, and it only begins once you have successfully completed an initial sync.

Step six: After creating an account, Partner Connect brings you to the Fivetran UI, where you can add connectors and have all of your data at your fingertips. After choosing a connector, follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.

Once you have created and synced your first connector, your free 14-day trial starts. Fivetran will deliver the data you need in a timely manner and in an easy-to-query format.

To see how you can further combine Fivetran with Snowpark and Streamlit, consider attending or watching a recording of a hands-on lab. It can take as little as a few lines of SQL and Python to start spinning up your organization’s next breakthrough.

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