--- title: Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise... description: Snowflake Horizon Catalog is being extended to cover enterprise unstructured data — the roughly 80% of data that lives in files and objects across NAS, cloud,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise Unstructured Data Estate: metadata first, content on demand | daily.dev og:description: Snowflake Horizon Catalog is being extended to cover enterprise unstructured data — the roughly 80% of data that lives in files and objects across NAS, cloud,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/JXm8UzSar.png og:image:alt: Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise Unstructured Data Estate: metadata first, content on demand og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise Unstructured Data Estate: metadata first, content on demand **[Snowflake Community](https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Snowflake Horizon Catalog is being extended to cover enterprise unstructured data — the roughly 80% of data that lives in files and objects across NAS, cloud, and archive storage, mostly on-prem and historically uncataloged. The integration with Diskover creates a global metadata engine that indexes every storage tier without moving data. Curated file metadata streams into Snowflake as queryable rows via Kafka, while file content is fetched on demand through a REST API. This enables joins between structured business data and unstructured file metadata, AI-ready access via Cortex Search and Cortex Agents, and governance through the same Horizon Catalog toolset that manages tables. Diskover is available on Snowflake Marketplace today. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I catalog on-prem unstructured file data in Snowflake without copying all the files? Snowflake Horizon Catalog can be extended to on-prem unstructured data using Diskover, which indexes every storage tier and streams curated file metadata into Snowflake as queryable rows via Kafka — no data movement required. File content is fetched on demand through the Diskover REST API only when a query or AI agent requests it. Diskover is available on Snowflake Marketplace. _Teams managing petabyte-scale file estates without a catalog path into Snowflake track approaches like this on daily.dev._ ### How does Snowflake Cortex AI access unstructured file content stored on NAS or object storage? Snowflake Cortex Search and Cortex Agents can access on-prem or external file content on demand through the Diskover REST API integration. Curated file metadata lives in Snowflake as queryable rows, and actual file content is fetched only when an agent or query requests it — from a single document to a bulk load — without requiring a pre-built ingestion pipeline. _Developers building agentic AI on Snowflake Cortex and needing to reach external file stores follow developments like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Is Snowflake Horizon Enough, or Do You Need a Dedicated Catalog?](https://daily.dev/posts/is-snowflake-horizon-enough-or-do-you-need-a-dedicated-catalog--bwjninwnx) · Decube · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Extending Snowflake Data Sharing to Open Table Formats](https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-data-sharing-to-open-table-formats-ydxyiii60) · Snowflake · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Snowflake to acquire Select Star to enhance its Horizon Catalog](https://daily.dev/posts/snowflake-to-acquire-select-star-to-enhance-its-horizon-catalog-uxntizxna) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Unlocking Your Lakehouse: Querying Snowflake-Managed Iceberg Tables with Spark via the Horizon REST API \(Private Preview\)](https://daily.dev/posts/unlocking-your-lakehouse-querying-snowflake-managed-iceberg-tables-with-spark-via-the-horizon-rest--dgxse1z2s) · Snowflake Community · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Security and Governance Best Practices for Deploying Snowflake Intelligence Using Horizon Catalog](https://daily.dev/posts/security-and-governance-best-practices-for-deploying-snowflake-intelligence-using-horizon-catalog-r6fpjcuaz) · Snowflake · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#big-data](https://daily.dev/tags/big-data), [#snowflake](https://daily.dev/tags/snowflake) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise Unstructured Data Estate: metadata first, content on demand","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar"},"datePublished":"2026-08-06T21:27:00.217Z","dateModified":"2026-08-06T21:47:25.769Z","description":"Snowflake Horizon Catalog is being extended to cover enterprise unstructured data — the roughly 80% of data that lives in files and objects across NAS, cloud,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3b601c698682008fcb0711c5cec012e9?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3b601c698682008fcb0711c5cec012e9?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Snowflake Community","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Snowflake Community","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/3eb5260f70bb4653be0f9581c0d937c8","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"big-data,snowflake","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Snowflake Community","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Extending Snowflake Horizon Catalog to the Enterprise Unstructured Data Estate: metadata first, content on demand"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/extending-snowflake-horizon-catalog-to-the-enterprise-unstructured-data-estate-metadata-first-cont-jxm8uzsar#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How can I catalog on-prem unstructured file data in Snowflake without copying all the files?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Snowflake Horizon Catalog can be extended to on-prem unstructured data using Diskover, which indexes every storage tier and streams curated file metadata into Snowflake as queryable rows via Kafka — no data movement required. 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