Optimising Snowflake security with a risk mitigation strategy for a global agricultural company
Cevo partnered with a global agribusiness to address security risks within their Snowflake data platform following an internal security assessment. Over four weeks, Cevo performed an analysis and advised on best practices for security, governance and compliance, delivering a comprehensive strategy to mitigate risks and enhance the platform’s resilience. This engagement equipped the organisation with the necessary frameworks and recommendations to ensure long-term security and ongoing operational success.
Risk mitigation
via robust strategy
Clear framework
for Snowflake optimisation
Industrial
Industry
A global agribusiness that supports farmers in enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainability through products and services such as livestock, crop nutrition, water management and rural services.
Business challenge
The company’s Snowflake platform had been in use for several years and was rapidly expanding, with new source systems being integrated to support business analytics across departments. However, these integrations lacked standardised patterns, robust access controls, up-to date documentation and proper logging mechanisms for audits. This created security vulnerabilities and governance challenges, increasing the risk of unauthorised access and compliance gaps.
To address these risks, the agriculture company engaged Cevo following a Snowflake risk assessment conducted by its internal security team. The goal was to mitigate or effectively managed all identified risks by implementing best practices and actionable recommendations.
Solution
To strengthen the security and governance of the company’s Snowflake environment, Cevo conducted a comprehensive security review and risk mitigation initiative. Over four weeks, Cevo worked in close collaboration with stakeholders through multiple iterative feedback loops, ensuring alignment with the customer’s security requirements and best practices.
The engagement began with an in-depth analysis of the latest internal risk assessment, followed by a review of the Snowflake environment. Cevo also assessed documentation for source systems, data architecture components and Snowflake layers, and conducted technical interviews with key stakeholders to ensure all identified risks were addressed.
Key deliverables included:
- End-to-end architecture review: Evaluation of all systems integrated with Snowflake to identify reusable patterns and strategies that enable faster and more secure future integrations.
- Privacy impact strategy: Assessment of personally identifiable information (PII) handling and optimised process to enhance data privacy.
- Code deployment strategy: Design of a structured code deployment strategy and peer review process to enhance security, efficiency and development quality.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity planning: Design and documentation of disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the Snowflake platform, considering Snowflake’s role within the organisation to ensure proportional risk management.
- Cost optimisation and audit readiness: Provided recommendations to enhance cost efficiency and improve audit preparedness.
Outcomes
Cevo’s analysis, design and risk mitigation strategy delivered several security and operational improvements for the organisation:
- Comprehensive risk mitigation: All identified risks were addressed through a structured security strategy, ensuring the Snowflake environment adheres to industry best practices and internal security standards.
- Enhanced data security and governance: The privacy impact strategy reinforced the secure handling of PII data, strengthening data protection and compliance.
- Streamlined architecture and integration: The end-to-end architecture review provided a clear framework for integrating systems with Snowflake, establishing reusable patterns and strategies, improving security and reducing complexity for future implementations.
- Improved business continuity planning: The disaster recovery and business continuity plan provided a clear framework for resilience, ensuring preparedness for disruptions.
- Cost optimisation and audit readiness: Cevo’s recommendations identified cost-saving opportunities within Snowflake and enhanced audit preparedness, minimising risk exposure.
Enjoyed this customer story?
Share it with your network!
You may also like
