Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Writes Anirban Ghoshal

 Writes Anirban Ghoshal, Senior Writer, InfoWorld | JUN 3, 2024 6:00 AM PD

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3715319/snowflake-adopts-open-source-strategy-to-grab-data-catalog-mind-share.html

While experts such as Forrester’s Chaurasia and dbInsight’s Tony Baer think that Polaris Catalog is an extended strategy for the company to broaden its reach to acquire new customers, The Futurum Group’s research vice president Steven Dickens thinks it is a “desperate” attempt to garner “goodwill” from customers and the open source community.


The soon-to-be-open-sourced data catalog, according to Dickens, is a direct consequence of Snowflake’s shortcomings and limitations, including poor interoperability, vendor lock-in, exorbitant costs, lack of innovation, and dependency on partnerships.

“Snowflake is notoriously expensive, and its cost structure has driven many customers to seek alternatives. Polaris can be seen as a last-ditch effort to retain customers by offering a potentially cheaper, open-source alternative,” Dickens said.

Further, Dickens sees Snowflake’s move to open-source Polaris Catalog as a way to counter its “slower, insular development pace”.

“Polaris is an attempt to leverage external innovation to compensate for Snowflake’s internal stagnation,” Dickens explained.