BlackRock and Snowflake announced a strategic partnership to deliver a next-generation solution for the investment management industry. BlackRock will launch Aladdin Data Cloud, a solution for investment managers to expand the utility of data, powered by Snowflake’s platform.
Aladdin is BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management and operations platform used by institutional investors including asset managers, pension funds, insurers and corporate treasurers. The firm is also marketing it to wealth managers.
Snowflake launched eight years ago to make it easier for enterprises to store and access data by integrating users with the three major U.S. public cloud vendors: AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft’s Azure. Snowflake’s Data Cloud is a global network where users can mobilize and unite their siloed data, share it within a secure framework, and conduct analytics.
For example, Snowflake serves as a portal for asset managers to access data feeds from vendors such as FactSet or Refinitiv, which helps those vendors monetize their data more easily and lets institutions simplify and unite their data usage.
The Aladdin Data Cloud will be a strategic part of Snowflake’s Data Cloud and a part of the Aladdin platform. The solution allows companies to bring Aladdin and non-Aladdin data together making it easy for users to build on top of it with Aladdin Studio, BlackRock’s platform for developers.
Each Aladdin Data Cloud client receives an independent, centrally-managed data store pre-loaded with rich front-to-back Aladdin data sets which can then be supplemented with proprietary and other third-party data sources, allowing organizations to access and query their business-critical data on a single, cloud-based platform.
BlackRock will be a founding partner in Snowflake’s “Powered by Snowflake” program. The two firms will collaborate to address the evolving needs of the investment management community with the goal of making data more accessible and actionable.
Rob Goldstein, COO of BlackRock, said, “Today, each client is able to customize on top of Aladdin and with their instance of Aladdin Studio and the Aladdin Data Cloud, they will have more powerful tools than ever at their disposal.”
