Snowflake partners with Vic shared services agency

The Victorian Government’s shared IT services agency, Cenitex, has announced a partnership with AI data cloud company Snowflake to provide a data platform for state government departments and agencies. Under the agreement, Victorian agencies will be able to accelerate deployment of the Snowflake platform and solutions.

Cenitex provides support and technology solutions to Victoria’s public sector. If a memorandum of understanding is signed between a government entity and Cenitex, the technology involved can be deployed as quickly as 24 hours later.

Cenitex CIO Scott Tivendale said the agreement with Snowflake is a good fit for both entities.

“Snowflake is cloud agnostic, which makes it ideal for data strategies across government entities, regardless of whether they’re using AWS, Azure or legacy infrastructure to store data,” he said. “This will also make data sharing much easier for those departments or agencies that wish to share critical data, regardless of where it’s housed. Snowflake’s security, privacy, data governance and cloud-agnostic capabilities were all considered as strengths for the platform, helping promote data sovereignty for agencies and departments.”

The collaboration will allow Victorian government agencies to consolidate and enhance their data strategies, and if and when departments become ready to implement an AI solution they’ll have the option of taking advantage of Snowflake’s built-in AI capabilities such as Snowflake Cortex AI, the company’s enterprise large language model, Tivendale said.

Snowflake VP for ANZ Theo Hourmouzis added that having a strong data strategy is an important component of government agencies’ attempts to deliver better digital services.

“There is no digital strategy — whether its transformation, modernisation or even AI — without a data strategy,” he said. “With Snowflake being added to the Cenitex catalogue, departments and agencies can continue to drive innovation and aim to unlock the full potential of their data faster than ever before.”

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