This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sagara
Note: This is an English translation of the Japanese article at https://dev.classmethod.jp/articles/modern-data-stack-info-summary-20250820/
Hi, this is Sagara.
As a consultant specializing in Modern Data Stack, I’m constantly exposed to the vast amount of information being shared in this space daily.
Among the numerous updates, I’ve compiled the Modern Data Stack-related information that caught my attention over the past two weeks.
Note: This article doesn’t cover all the latest information about the mentioned products. It only includes information that I found interesting based on **my personal judgment and preferences.*
Data Warehouse/Data Lakehouse
Snowflake
Database Backup “Snapshots” That Cannot Be Deleted or Edited Even by ACCOUNTADMIN Now in Public Preview
Snowflake’s new Snapshot feature is now in public preview.
The key feature is that, similar to clones, it can replicate data with zero-copy, but with the Retention lock feature, it can be maintained as an undeletable and uneditable backup.
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/release-notes/2025/other/2025-08-18-worm-snapshots
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/snapshots
I’ve actually tried it myself and written a blog post about it – please check it out!
https://dev.classmethod.jp/articles/snowflake-try-snapshot/
Stored Procedure “AI_GENERATE_TABLE_DESC” for Generating Descriptions Using Generative AI Now in Public Preview
Snowflake’s new stored procedure “AI_GENERATE_TABLE_DESC” for generating descriptions using generative AI is now in public preview. Previously, this could only be done by clicking buttons in Snowsight, but now SQL command-based description generation using generative AI is possible.
https://docs.snowflake.com/release-notes/2025/other/2025-08-14-sql-object-descriptions
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/sql-cortex-descriptions
Here’s my blog post about trying this feature. While AI_GENERATE_TABLE_DESC returns descriptions in English, I’ve also written about a custom stored procedure that translates and stores them in Japanese using the Translate function – please take a look!
https://dev.classmethod.jp/articles/snowflake-try-generate-table-desc/
Cortex Knowledge Extensions Now Generally Available
Snowflake’s Cortex Knowledge Extensions is now generally available. This feature allows content that can be referenced by agent functions like Snowflake Intelligence to be obtained from the Marketplace. In essence, databases with embedded Cortex Search Service can now be obtained through the Marketplace.
https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/easy-button-context-rich-ai-agents/
I tried the official Snowflake documentation’s Cortex Knowledge Extensions with Snowflake Intelligence, and the answer accuracy clearly improved! This is a great example of how good data leads to good AI results.
Workload Identity Federation Now Generally Available
Snowflake has released Workload identity federation as a new authentication mechanism.
With Workload identity federation, you can build service-to-service authentication mechanisms that authenticate to Snowflake using cloud provider ID systems such as AWS IAM, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google Cloud.
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/release-notes/2025/other/2025-08-14-wif
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/workload-identity-federation
For practical usage, the following blog is very helpful:
https://zenn.dev/jimatomo/articles/c514c6e322bf1a
Looking ahead, if various SaaS/OSS tools that require authentication when integrating with Snowflake support Workload identity federation, we can connect these tools to Snowflake more securely and easily! (For example, looking at the latest roadmap for terraform-provider-snowflake linked below, it seems to be planned for implementation by the end of 2025.)
https://github.com/snowflakedb/terraform-provider-snowflake/blob/main/ROADMAP.md
Snowpipe Billing Model Changed to Simple Volume-Based for Business Critical and Above Plans
With the 9.21 release around August 1st, the Snowpipe billing model has been changed to a simple volume-based system for Business Critical and above plans.
This makes estimation much easier than before, and the new billing model seems better for cases where you want to load many small files!
For details, please check the official information below:
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-load-snowpipe-billing
https://www.snowflake.com/legal-files/CreditConsumptionTable.pdf
New Community-Built Snowflake MCP Server
A new Snowflake MCP Server has been released by the international community. While the official MCP Server works through Cortex Agents, this one uses Python Connector for connection, allowing for a broader range of requests to Snowflake.
https://github.com/uniquejtx/snowflake-generic-mcp
Databricks
Unity Catalog Adds User Access Request Feature for Data Objects (Public Preview)
Unity Catalog in Databricks has added a new feature for user access requests to data objects.
The functionality allows you to pre-configure notification destinations such as email addresses or Slack channels, and when users make access requests, notifications are sent to the specified destinations.
Unity Catalog REST API Usage Guide
The Unity Catalog blog published an article summarizing baseline usage patterns for the Unity Catalog REST API.
Specifically, it explains common operations like listing (GET), creating (POST), updating (PATCH), and deleting (DELETE) for Catalogs and Tables using Python’s requests library, with concrete code examples.
https://www.unitycatalog.io/blogs/how-to-use-the-unity-catalog-rest-api
Data Transform
dbt
dbt Fusion and Official VS Code Extension Move from Beta to Preview
dbt Fusion and the official VS Code Extension, previously available as Beta, have moved to Preview status.
According to the article below, they defined a metric called “Fusion conformance” to prove that Fusion performs exactly the same as dbt Core in specific dbt projects. This metric has passed for a sufficient percentage of users’ dbt projects, giving them confidence for the preview release.
https://www.getdbt.com/blog/fusion-and-dbt-vs-code-extension-preview-launch
Business Intelligence
Looker
Looker 25.14 Release Notes Published
The release notes for Looker’s latest version 25.14 have been published.
https://cloud.google.com/looker/docs/release-notes#August_13_2025
I’m particularly excited about the ability to define synonyms in views! Since internal conversations often use abbreviations for metrics, defining these abbreviations as synonyms should enable more natural interactions in Conversational Analytics to get the desired data.
https://cloud.google.com/looker/docs/reference/param-field-synonyms
Omni
“Omni Spreadsheets” Released – Perform Data Processing and Aggregation with Spreadsheet-Like Operations
Omni has released “Omni spreadsheets,” a new feature that allows data processing and aggregation with almost the same operations as spreadsheets.
https://omni.co/blog/building-our-financial-models-with-omni-spreadsheets
https://docs.omni.co/docs/querying-and-sql/workbook/spreadsheet-tabs
Looking at the demo below, it’s almost like a spreadsheet, making it a great feature for creating rich tabular reports that can only be made in spreadsheets. However, a concern is the risk of accumulating data with various calculated metrics in spreadsheets separate from Omni’s defined Semantic Layer. It would be nice if this could be controlled well with permissions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBjnn8FUHxE
Omni Can Now Push dbt Exposures
I’ve only seen this in the ChangeLog, but Omni can now push dbt exposures as a new feature.
This allows you to output how Omni content is linked to dbt Models as exposures and view them in lineage.
Data Catalog
Select Star
Select Star’s August Release Summary
Select Star’s ChangeLog published a summary of August releases.
Notable updates include ER diagram refresh and MCP Server release.
Data Quality・Data Observability
Elementary
Elementary’s July Update Summary
Elementary’s official blog published an article summarizing July updates.
I was particularly interested in the MCP Server and the feature to exclude anomalous data during training for anomaly detection.
https://www.elementary-data.com/post/july-product-update
Data Orchestration
Dagster
MCP Server Released
Dagster has released an MCP Server.
According to the blog below, use cases include creating project templates and building workflows by integrating with dbt and Snowflake MCP Servers.
https://dagster.io/blog/dagsters-mcp-server
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sagara