Metaplane is entering a competitive market, with well-funded players like Monte Carlo and Acceldata already operating in the data observability space. However, Snowflake’s investment in the startup demonstrates its confidence in Metaplane’s capabilities and the potential for their collaboration to deliver significant value to customers. In fact, this is Snowflake’s second investment in the observability domain this year, following their backing of Observe in March.
Data quality is a critical factor for organizations that rely on AI and other data-driven applications. However, many struggle to maintain the quality of their data due to its sheer volume and the complex nature of data pipelines. Teams often have to manage hundreds or even thousands of data sources, making it challenging to identify issues and abnormalities. This is where Metaplane comes in.
Metaplane, founded by MIT graduate Kevin Hu, former HubSpot engineer Peter Casinelli, and ex-Appcues developer Guru Mahendran, offers a comprehensive solution for maintaining data quality throughout the entire data stack. The platform integrates with various tools commonly used in data processing, such as Fivetran, Snowflake BigQuery, dbt, Airflow, and Tableau. By leveraging machine learning models trained on historical metadata, lineage, and logs, Metaplane can automatically flag data anomalies and schema changes based on user-defined monitors.
Setting up these monitors is a straightforward process that takes just 15 minutes, according to Kevin Hu. Alerts are then sent directly to the relevant data teams, ensuring that potential issues are addressed promptly. With Snowflake’s investment, Metaplane will enhance its integration with the Snowflake data cloud, providing users with even more telemetry and metadata. This will enable Snowflake customers to closely monitor the quality of their data assets as they move through various stages of the pipeline, empowering them to address any problems that arise effectively.
Furthermore, Snowflake and Metaplane have plans to launch a native app for the Metaplane platform on the Snowflake data cloud. This will allow users to deploy and manage Metaplane directly within their Snowflake instance, eliminating the need to connect multiple data tools. According to Ashwin Kamath and Harsha Kapre, product management leaders at Snowflake, this integration will provide customers with a seamless experience and allow them to fully leverage Metaplane’s capabilities within the secure environment of their Snowflake account.
Snowflake’s aggressive approach to embracing AI under the leadership of CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy is evident in its recent investments. The company launched Cortex, a fully managed service for building AI-powered applications, last year. It has also partnered with several open-source AI vendors and developed its own large language model called Arctic. These efforts demonstrate Snowflake’s commitment to staying at the forefront of AI innovation and competing with industry leaders like Databricks.
In conclusion, Snowflake’s investment in Metaplane signifies the growing importance of data observability in the era of AI. By integrating Metaplane’s platform with the Snowflake data cloud, organizations can ensure the quality and reliability of their data, ultimately enhancing the performance and effectiveness of their AI applications. With the increasing complexity of data pipelines and the ever-growing volume of data, solutions like Metaplane are becoming crucial for organizations striving to harness the power of AI while maintaining data integrity.
