Aveva & Snowflake launch zero-copy industrial tie-up

AVEVA has entered into a collaboration with Snowflake focused on linking AVEVA's CONNECT platform with Snowflake's data platform for industrial customers. The tie-up is intended to let joint customers access industrial and enterprise data without copying it into separate systems. It uses a direct, zero-copy integration designed to reduce the need for data pipelines and integration projects between information technology and operational technology environments.

Governance controls

Industrial groups have long struggled with fragmented data spread across plant systems, engineering software and corporate applications. That separation has limited the use of analytics and artificial intelligence across operations, particularly in sectors such as energy, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, where data controls and audit trails face close scrutiny.

Under the collaboration, customers using CONNECT alongside Snowflake will be able to use governance features including column-level security, dynamic data masking, object tagging and access controls. Those measures are intended to help companies manage compliance requirements when operational data is shared more widely across a business.

AI industrial use

The companies are positioning the arrangement around growing demand for AI use cases in industrial settings. Access to cloud-based datasets from operational, enterprise and external sources could support software agents designed to analyse conditions, recommend actions and, in some cases, automate routine optimisation tasks.

Examples outlined by the companies include systems that could optimise energy costs, predict equipment failures, and draw on maintenance procedures or manufacturer specifications when generating recommendations. More critical decisions would remain subject to approval by human operators.

"Industrial customers need fast, secure access to trusted data across operational, engineering, and enterprise domains to support decision-making at scale," said Rob McGreevy, Chief Product Officer, AVEVA. He added: "Through this collaboration, we are extending our cloud-scale intelligence capabilities and enabling data to be accessed and used without duplication, helping bring operational intelligence into enterprise-wide decision within an open, partner-led ecosystem."

Snowflake described the agreement as a way for industrial companies to use AI and analytics without moving large volumes of data between platforms. It has been expanding its push into sector-specific data workloads as customers seek to combine governance requirements with broader access to information held across different parts of their organisations.

"Organisations today want access to easy, connected and trusted data across every part of their business to fully realise the value of AI and advanced analytics," said Chris Child, Vice President of Product, Data Engineering, Snowflake.

Cloud collaboration

"By collaborating with AVEVA, we are enabling industrial customers to leverage Snowflake's AI Data Cloud, supporting faster innovation and more scalable analytics, while enabling them to unlock deeper insights, drive smarter, faster decisions, and maintain governability and auditability, without the complexity of moving or duplicating data," said Child.

AVEVA, based in Cambridge, sells software used by industrial companies to manage design, operations and performance data. Snowflake provides cloud data software that companies use to store, share and analyse information across business systems.

The collaboration reflects a broader shift in industrial software towards shared cloud data models, rather than architectures built around repeated extraction, transfer and duplication of operational data. For manufacturers and infrastructure operators, that change could affect how quickly AI tools are deployed and how tightly they can be governed once in use.