Platform release notes move fast, and most items matter to almost nobody. Here is the short list from 13 to 20 October 2026 for analysts, analytics engineers and data engineers: what went generally available (GA), what is in preview, and one deal that reshapes customer data tooling. For the bigger monthly picture, see our Snowflake and Databricks October updates.
Snowflake
Snowflake, 13 to 20 October
Cortex Agent SDK (preview)
Build Cortex Agents in code; Gemini 4 Argon added to AI Functions (preview).
Data mirroring for Snowflake Postgres (GA)
Generally available, alongside Data Clean Rooms updates.
Iceberg v3 upgrades (GA)
Upgrade tables to Iceberg v3 and use expression defaults; Openflow Endpoints GA; Parquet Direct and Grok 4.7 and GLM 5.3 models in preview.
Schema variables (GA)
Generally available, while Cortex Tools for Cortex AI Gateway arrive in preview.
Online Feature Store (GA)Now
Real-time feature serving, plus sensitive-data entitlement and access reports and Snowflake-provided tags, all GA.
The Online Feature Store, explained
A feature store keeps the inputs a machine-learning model needs, such as "number of orders in the last hour" or "average basket value", calculated consistently for training and for live predictions. The online part serves the latest values in milliseconds, so a fraud model can score a payment while the customer waits.
- Feature view types
- batch, stream and real-time
- Ingestion
- events through REST APIs
- Billing
- online service compute, autoscale compute and storage
- Monitoring
- refresh status, serving latency and errors, and stream health in Snowsight (GA)
- Clouds
- AWS and Azure commercial regions; not Google Cloud
Also worth a look if you own governance: the new sensitive data entitlement and access reports show who can see, and who did see, classified columns, which is the evidence auditors usually ask for.
Databricks
Open Unity Catalog
GA, 13 October- External Apache Spark clients can create and write managed Delta tables with catalog commits
- External engines can query Unity Catalog views over Delta tables through the Unity REST API
Less lock-in: other engines can join the same governed tables.
Security and streaming
19 October- OAuth custom identity claims let dynamic views and ABAC policies filter rows per end user of an app
- Async transformWithState for Python is GA, for faster stateful streaming
- On-demand state repartitioning (GA) resizes stateful queries without losing checkpoints
Row-level security that follows the real user, not the service account.
Connectors and models
13 to 20 October- Lakeflow Connect connectors in beta: SurveyMonkey, Oracle Eloqua and Asana
- Gemini 4 Argon and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017) on Unity Gateway
- Original DeepSeek V4.1 Flash retires on 19 November
Update model names in jobs and dashboards before then.
Salesforce agrees to buy Braze
On 20 October, Salesforce agreed to buy Braze, the customer engagement platform that sends personalised email, push, SMS and WhatsApp messages, for $5.66 billion in cash, or $47.50 a share, about 58% above Braze's previous closing price. Salesforce plans to use Braze to strengthen Marketing Cloud's cross-channel personalisation. The deal is expected to close in Salesforce's 2028 fiscal year, which starts in February 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
- Braze today
- revenue up 26% to $227.2 million last quarter; more than 190 data connectors; AI features under BrazeAI
- Customers
- about 2,770, including Canva, Instacart and Venmo
- For data teams
- expect Braze's connectors and event data to move closer to Salesforce's platform over time; keep exports and warehouse syncs documented in case integrations change
Check your understanding
1/3On which clouds is Snowflake's Online Feature Store available?
It is not available on Google Cloud.
2/3What did Databricks make GA for outside Spark clients?
Tables need catalog commits enabled.
3/3When does the original DeepSeek V4.1 Flash retire on Databricks?
The 1017 version is the recommended replacement.
You got 0 out of 3.
Also out on 21 October: DuckDB 2.0, with a server mode, a VARIANT type and triggers. More platform news: Snowflake October 2026 update, Databricks October 2026 update and FabCon Europe 2026.
Sources: Snowflake server release notes and the Online Feature Store GA note (20 October 2026); Databricks platform release notes, October 2026; SiliconANGLE and Agile Brand Guide on Salesforce and Braze (20 October 2026). Features roll out by region and edition; check availability in your account.
Alessandro Ecclesie AgazziWritten by Alessandro Ecclesie Agazzi, analytics engineer in London. Updated 21 October 2026. About me