Amsterdam / San Mateo – Data giant Snowflake has announced its largest acquisition to date, agreeing to purchase observability specialist Observe in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion. The move, reported by Dutch tech site Computable, underscores the critical shift in the IT world: data is no longer just for storage; it’s for real-time survival. With Snowflake’s massive European hub located here in Amsterdam, this deal has significant ripples for the local tech ecosystem.
Table of Contents
- The Deal: A Billion-Dollar “Natural Progression”
- What is Observability? (The Car Analogy)
- The AI Factor: Why Now?
- Market Context: Taking on Splunk and Datadog
- Key Takeaways
- Dutch Learning Corner
- Community CTA
The Deal: A Billion-Dollar “Natural Progression”
The acquisition was widely anticipated in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam tech circles. Founded in 2017, Observe was unique because it built its entire platform on top of Snowflake’s infrastructure from day one. The relationship was already cozy: Observe CEO Jeremy Burton has served on Snowflake’s board for nearly a decade.
This isn’t just a purchase; it’s an internalization. By buying Observe, Snowflake transforms from a passive “data warehouse” into an active “intelligence hub,” allowing users to debug their applications without moving data out of the Snowflake environment.
What is Observability? (The Car Analogy)
For the non-techies: What is the difference between Monitoring and Observability?
- Monitoring is like a dashboard light telling you: “Your car has a flat tire.” You know something is wrong, but not why.
- Observability is like a mechanic telling you: “Your tire is flat because you ran over a nail at kilometer 45, and the pressure dropped over 10 minutes.”
Observe provides this “why” by analyzing logs, metrics, and traces. In modern IT, knowing why a server crashed is worth millions.
The AI Factor: Why Now?
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Snowflake’s CEO, emphasized that this is driven by Artificial Intelligence. “As our customers build complex AI agents, reliability is a business imperative,” he stated. AI models are often “black boxes”—you don’t know how they reach a decision. Observability provides the transparency needed to trust and troubleshoot these AI systems. Storing this massive amount of telemetry data in Snowflake makes it cheaper and easier to analyze than traditional, expensive tools.
Market Context: Taking on Splunk and Datadog
The observability market (IT Operations Management) grew to over $50 billion in 2024. By integrating Observe, Snowflake is now directly competing with giants like Datadog, Dynatrace, and Splunk (recently acquired by Cisco). This consolidation trend signals that “Data” and “Operations” are merging. For Dutch enterprise clients using Snowflake, this means they can potentially cancel other expensive subscriptions and do everything within one platform.
Key Takeaways
- The Price: ~$1 Billion. Snowflake’s biggest bet yet.
- The Tech: Observe is built natively on Snowflake, ensuring seamless integration.
- The Shift: Moving from just “storing data” to “monitoring live systems.”
- The Rivalry: Snowflake enters the ring against Datadog and Splunk.
Dutch Learning Corner
| Word | Pronun. (Eng) | Meaning | Context (NL + EN) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📈 De Groei | De Khroo-ee | The Growth | De groei van Snowflake is enorm. (The growth of Snowflake is enormous.) |
| 🤝 De Integratie | De In-te-khra-sie | The Integration | Een naadloze integratie is belangrijk. (A seamless integration is important.) |
| 🔍 Het Inzicht | Het In-zikht | The Insight | Data geeft ons nieuwe inzichten. (Data gives us new insights.) |
| 💾 De Gegevens | De Ge-ghe-vens | The Data | De beveiliging van gegevens is cruciaal. (The security of data is crucial.) |
Too Many Tools?
Are you tired of jumping between different dashboards (Splunk for logs, Snowflake for data, Tableau for graphs)? Does this “All-in-One” move by Snowflake sound like a dream or a monopoly trap? Share your thoughts below!
