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Hortonworks, a provider of enterprise software based on Apache Hadoop, has announced the availability of the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) 1.2, an open-source platform powered by Apache Hadoop.
The enterprise-grade HDP includes Apache Ambari, a Web-based tool for provisioning, managing, and monitoring Apache Hadoop clusters. In addition to Ambari, Hortonworks also introduced new capabilities for improving security and ease of use, which enables HDP to deliver an enterprise-class distribution of Apache Hadoop that is endorsed and adopted by some of the largest vendors in the IT ecosystem, the company said.
“The inclusion of the newest version of Apache Ambari in the Hortonworks Data Platform represents a major step forward in the open-source community and the Apache Hadoop ecosystem,” Herb Cunitz, president of Hortonworks, said in a statement. “With a number of new features designed to improve the ease of use, management and security of Apache Hadoop, our newest release of the Hortonworks Data Platform is helping solidify Hadoop’s position as the de facto next-generation enterprise data platform.
“Hortonworks remains solely committed to developing a 100 percent open-source, stable and reliable Apache Hadoop-based platform that will help grow and expand the ecosystem around Hadoop, driving the collection, storage, management and analysis of big data at leading enterprise organizations worldwide,” he said.
Hortonworks, which is a contributor to Apache Hadoop, continues to innovate throughout all Hadoop-related projects, packaging the most enterprise-ready components, such as Ambari, into the Hortonworks Data Platform, Cunitz said, adding that Ambari represents the forefront of innovation in Apache Hadoop management.
Built on Apache Hadoop 1.0, HDP 1.2 improves the ease of enterprise adoption for Apache Hadoop with comprehensive management and monitoring, enhanced connectivity to high-performance drivers, and the ability to bring the HBase, Hive and HCatalog projects into the enterprise.
Apache Hadoop is a software framework for running applications on large clusters built of commodity hardware. The Hortonworks Data Platform 1.2 features a number of new enhancements designed to improve the enterprise viability of Apache Hadoop, including the ability to zoom into cluster usage and performance metrics for jobs and tasks to identify the root cause of performance bottlenecks or operations issues. This enables Hadoop users to identify issues and optimize future job processing.
HDP 1.2 also provides an enhanced security architecture and pluggable authentication model that controls access to Hive tables and the metastore. In addition, HDP 1.2 improves scalability by supporting multiple concurrent query connections to Hive from business intelligence tools and Hive clients.
In addition, HDP 1.2 provides enterprises with an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connector that enables the integration of current systems with high-performance drivers built for big data. The ODBC driver enables integration with reporting or visualization components through a SQL engine built into the driver. Hortonworks has partnered with Simba Technologies to deliver a reliable high-performance ODBC connector that is free and enterprise-ready.
Also, by including and testing HBase 0.94.2, HDP 1.2 delivers performance and operational improvements for customers building and deploying scalable interactive applications using HBase, the company said.
“We are pleased to see the continued evolution of the Hortonworks Data Platform—a key component for capturing and refining data in the Teradata Unified Data Architecture, which provides deeper analytical insights across all data for any end-user or application,” said Scott Gnau, president of Teradata Labs, in a statement. “The focus on system management with this release allows for seamless integration with Teradata Viewpoint, allowing our customers to have a single administration view across the Teradata data warehouse, Teradata Aster discovery platform and Apache Hadoop in their enterprise architecture, resulting in a lower cost of operation.”
Hortonworks Data Platform 1.2 is now available for download here.
Hortonworks was formed by the key architects, builders and operators from the Yahoo Hadoop software engineering team that led the effort to design and build every major release of Apache Hadoop from 0.1 to the most current stable release, contributing more than 80 percent of the code along the way, the company said. Hortonworks remains active in the Apache Hadoop world. Hortonworks’ Arun Murthy, a co-founder and architect at the company, also is vice president of Apache Hadoop at the Apache Software Foundation.
Hortonworks provides data services required to store, analyze and access data; operational services required to manage and operate Hadoop; and platform services, such as high availability, snapshots and more, that are required to make Apache Hadoop Enterprise-grade, the company said. The company provides a distribution of Apache Hadoop, adding the required operational, data and platform services from the open-source community in the Hortonworks Data Platform.
Meanwhile, Hortonworks also provides a range of support options for customers of the Hortonworks Data Platform and the company provides expert Hadoop training, as well.