Unlocking the Power of FSU's Data Repository: Snowflake

When you hear the word "snowflake," what comes to mind? A unique, crystalline ice formation? Well, the Snowflake we're referring to is something entirely different—a cloud-based data storage solution.  

FSU Information Technology Services uses Snowflake, an advanced data analytics platform, to enhance business processes and support university goals. Snowflake provides extremely fast access to data to enhance the research and decision-making process.  In addition, Snowflake enables the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to streamline data management and analysis. Similarly, its Document AI feature can extract data from PDFs and third-party sources to maximize the data auditing process. And data from different source systems (47 and growing) means Snowflake can also Assist FSU personnel in understanding how students interact with buildings, classrooms, wireless networks, and other campus facilities to optimize resource allocation, class scheduling and overall efficiency. 

 

As AI penetrates not just our work but also our lives, it’s important to have data available. We’re building on Snowflake as our data foundation to help us succeed in this evolving AI-centric world.

The project began in 2019 as a pilot and expanded in 2020 in response to COVID-19. During the pandemic, Snowflake played a key role in reporting and COVID-related processes. This included monitoring remote student engagement, tracking population infection patterns and informing classroom ability decisions. By using Snowflake, FSU saved hours of development and maintenance work. 

Now in its sixth year, Snowflake continues to grow, with more departments adopting it to meet their evolving data needs. Currently, FSU stores data from 47 systems which is an 11x increase compared to FSU’s prior data platform Oracle. Snowflake is also much faster; while Oracle needed up to 90 days to fulfill staff data requests, Snowflake reduces that turnaround time to just five days. 

Several ongoing projects are using Snowflake currently. For example, one FSU department is working on a project using it for healthcare data and mental health resources. This is possible by using anonymous data to see where therapies work and whether they are yielding positive results. Meanwhile, another project has Snowflake helping create physical objects through 3D printing. Looking ahead, FSU ITS plans to use Snowflake for patient notes to refine patterns of treatment, a potential game changer for the future of medicine.  

 

Document AI is a huge force multiplier for us, making Snowflake an even more enriched data platform that helps us maximize our unstructured data for outlier detection, trend analysis and beyond.

 With Snowflake, the possibilities are endless, and FSU is just beginning to unlock its full potential.