Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, and SAP SE, a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, today announced a new collaboration to enable organizations to seamlessly leverage Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud and SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) with semantically rich data. The joint effort will make Snowflake’s data & AI platform available as a SAP solution extension for SAP BDC customers. The new offering, SAP Snowflake solution extension for SAP Business Data Cloud, unites SAP’s deep expertise in mission-critical business processes and semantically rich data with Snowflake’s unified platform capabilities for building AI and machine learning solutions. SAP and Snowflake are also enabling zero copy sharing between SAP BDC and Snowflake to help customers get richer insights, build enterprise-grade intelligent applications and unlock AI-powered innovation that fuels business transformation.

“By tightly integrating SAP and Snowflake, we’re making it simple for enterprises to connect their critical business data with its rich context in SAP with the power of seamless AI app and data agent development at scale in Snowflake,” added Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product, Snowflake. “Enterprises can now innovate faster with Snowflake and SAP BDC and seamlessly share data between the platforms —zero-copy and fully governed.”

SAP Snowflake brings Snowflake into the open data ecosystem of SAP BDC and the business data fabric–empowering customers with greater openness and choice, while extending SAP BDC with Snowflake’s AI, analytics, data engineering, Marketplace, and collaboration capabilities. Customers can use SAP BDC with SAP Snowflake as a cloud-scale compute and storage option to extend the value of their data. Leveraging bidirectional, zero-copy data access, data and AI teams can work with semantically rich SAP data products in real time, within a unified governance framework. As a result, customers can harmonize SAP and non-SAP data while optimizing total cost of ownership across workloads and build agents and AI applications in SAP Snowflake fueled by trusted SAP data products.

“Bringing Snowflake to SAP Business Data Cloud empowers our customers with openness and choice,” said Irfan Khan, President and Chief Product Officer for SAP Data and Analytics, SAP SE. “Together, we combine SAP’s decades of leadership in mission-critical business applications with Snowflake’s modern data platform to deliver a unified, enterprise-ready, and SAP-supported experience that extends the value of business data across the entire ecosystem.”

With SAP Snowflake, customers can:

• Build a trusted, AI-ready data foundation to harmonize SAP and non-SAP data: Unify their data landscape with an integrated business data fabric—enabling more seamless zero-copy sharing, enriched modeling, and a complete, business-ready view of their data in real time for all data engineering, analytics, and AI and machine learning workflows across the enterprise.
• Accelerate AI business value with semantically rich data: Simplify AI governance, ground AI in organizational knowledge, and build tailored agents—helping to ensure more secure, context-rich, and intelligent applications across the enterprise.
• Develop intelligent applications grounded in mission-critical business data: Build, deploy, and continuously optimize intelligent applications faster with a harmonized and democratized data foundation powered by semantically rich, trusted data products that accelerate the pace of innovation and production.

In addition to SAP Snowflake, the partnership also includes SAP Business Data Cloud Connect for Snowflake, a capability enabling bidirectional, zero copy data sharing with Snowflake. Enterprises already using Snowflake can leverage SAP BDC Connect to integrate their existing instances of Snowflake with SAP Business Data Cloud for more seamless, zero‑copy access, providing Snowflake users with real-time access to semantically rich SAP data products—without duplication.

SAP and Snowflake are supporting thousands of customers, including industry leaders like AstraZeneca, as they transform their industries with this partnership.

“AstraZeneca is constantly pushing the boundaries of science and is pioneering in life-changing medicines,” said Russell Smith, Vice President of ERP Transformation Technology, AstraZeneca. “Data and AI are central to achieving this aim, and our close collaboration with SAP and Snowflake complements our ability to access, process and analyze real-time data. This announcement will accelerate our mission and recognizes that every minute matters to make breakthroughs for patients.”

SAP Snowflake is planned to be generally available in Q1 2026. SAP BDC Connect for Snowflake is planned to be generally available in H1 2026.

Professor Fiona Robson, Head of the School of Social Sciences and Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University Dubai

Universities have a responsibility to prepare students for their future career in terms of both skills and knowledge. In an increasingly technological world, managers of the future need to understand the capabilities of HR tech as well as being able to use it.

Exposing students to HR tech platforms can help to prepare them for their future career in HR in terms of skills but also understanding what is going on in the HR space – understanding the priorities and why use of technology is growing. Being familiar and comfortable with HR tech might help them to stand out in the graduate marketplace and from an employer’s perspective could help them hit the ground running. Being able to analyse data to inform organisational decisions is critical and HR tech gives them the ability to get good data and then learn how to use it to make appropriate data-driven decisions.

Real play rather than role play is particularly helpful for students as the learning is more meaningful, and they can visualise what would happen in the workplace. Therefore, using software which is being used in real organisations will add great value to their learning experience and what their future role might involve. Where University academics have strong relationships with industry, they may be able to use real data so that the students get a realistic experience and understand the complexity of what organisations have to contend with.

Where the HR tech has the capability to provide commentary based on the student performance in using it, this is a further source of information of formative feedback which helps students with their academic and personal development. Developing students’ confidence in using tech should not be underestimated as if they have the knowledge but are afraid to use it, their impact will be limited. Ideally, organisations are looking for graduates who are comfortable in learning to use new programmes and understand some of the teething troubles that can emerge when introducing new tech.

Involving HR professionals within the classroom adds significant value to students and helps them to understand the diverse nature of working in an HR team. Therefore where learning to use the HR tech platform can be married with having an HR professional to talk  them through how it can be used and the impact of using it, this would further strengthen their learning and experience. There can also be benefits for HR professionals, as they can gain perspectives from students that may differ from those they encounter in the workplace—particularly if they are interested in potential generational differences. Sharing their own knowledge and skills and presenting to University students can also be very beneficial to the personal and professional development of the HR professional.

Organisations are ideally looking for graduates who are confident in using technology and open to trying new systems and ideas, and therefore, if they have been exposed to different types of tech, this could give them an advantage. They can also learn about some of the wider things about technology implementation – for example, issues around ethics as well as the data protection and legal implications of having access to sensitive and confidential information.

Opening Doors with Internships

Internship programmes provide great insights into the industry and allow students to see the links between theory and practice. It also enables them to see all of the different internal and external factors which can have an impact on organisations, and this can be very eye-opening for them. Understanding the roles of different stakeholders is usually one of the key learning points from internships.

In the classroom, we can teach students the theory about organisational culture and individual and team dynamics; however, an internship is where they can see what this actually looks like. Being able to observe how different departments collaborate may help them to make sense of some of the topics they have studied as part of their degree programme.

We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of learning to build relationships in the workplace and to recognise and respond to issues like organisational politics. For some students, exposure to an internship can help cement their career aspirations in identifying which areas of business they find most interesting, and for some students they will be attracted to roles that they may previously not have been aware of.

As most businesses now have an international aspect, it is also valuable for interns to learn about the different angles of internationalisation and what this means for people in their day-to-day activities. Typically they may recognise it is common for organisations to have international customers but may not have considered international supply chains and the complexities of having employees in different countries which operate under different jurisdictions. It may also reiterate the importance of developing the cross cultural skills that they are taught by their lecturers.

If students’ internships are successful and they are identified as being potential talent of the future, the organisation may begin a longer-term relationship with them. For example, they may allow them to focus their dissertation within the organisation or offering them a job once they graduate.

HONOR, unveils its latest campaign film, “Everyday Heroes” – a cinematic tribute to resilience, courage, and the human spirit. The short film marks the launch of the HONOR X9d – the Unbreakable AI Smartphone – a device designed to endure challenges and keep people connected even in the most demanding conditions.

Through this campaign, HONOR continues its mission to merge innovation with emotion, celebrating individuals who reflect the brand’s belief in human-centric technology and everyday strength. The film tells the story of a high-altitude window cleaner — an unsung hero whose daily work symbolizes perseverance and optimism.

A Tribute to Everyday Strength

“Everyday Heroes” is part of HONOR’s broader storytelling approach, showcasing authentic human experiences that reflect the values of perseverance and hope. The campaign positions HONOR not merely as a technology brand, but as a partner in the human journey — recognizing that the greatest innovations are those that serve people.

From the sunrise that marks the beginning of the worker’s day to the emotional final shot of connection and relief, every frame of the film reflects HONOR’s message: strength, empathy, and innovation belong together. The campaign also honors the invisible heroes of modern cities — those whose contributions often go unnoticed but whose dedication keeps the world running smoothly.

Technology Inspired by Real Life

The HONOR X9d combines robust engineering with thoughtful innovation. Its durable structure and water-resistant design are matched by AI-powered features that make communication seamless and secure. This new device represents HONOR’s continuous efforts to build technology that complements human resilience — technology that keep up with life.

By focusing on real stories and relatable moments, HONOR reaffirms its commitment to creating devices that connect people emotionally, not just digitally. The “Everyday Heroes” campaign builds on the brand’s growing reputation for blending empathy with engineering — bringing to life a message that resonates deeply with consumers across the GCC region.

The campaign film “Everyday Heroes” is available to watch on HONOR Arabia’s official social media channel, accompanied by behind-the-scenes content showcasing the production process and the real-life inspirations behind the story.