HP Drops $50M on Hortonworks' Hadoop Through deep integration with Hortonwork's enterprise Apache Hadoop, HP customers will be able to easily build their next-gen applications with the Hortonworks Data Platform. The companies will work together to enable HP customers to deploy the Hortonworks Data Platform as the Hadoop component of HP HAVEn.

Continuing to walk the walk when it comes to addressing the big data needs of its enterprise customers, Hewlett-Packard has invested a whopping $50 million in Hadoop distributor Hortonworks.The partnership will help speed the adoption of Enterprise Apache Hadoop by integrating the Hortonworks Data Platform with the HP HAVEn data processing stack. The HAVEn platform is comprised of software, services, and hardwarethat analyze 100 percent of an enterprise's data -- structured and unstructured -- so executives can make the best decisions for their businesses. The open-source Apache Hadoop is a framework for processing large data sets. It is intended to provide insights into large stores of structured and unstructured data. Hortonworks was founded in 2001 by members of the original Hadoop development and operations team at Yahoo. Additionally, the companies will integrate their engineering strategies and work together to enable HP customers to deploy the Hortonworks Data Platform as the Hadoop component of HP HAVEn. Understanding, Using Data is Key HP will also work to certify HP Vertica with Apache Hadoop YARN, the architectural center of Hadoop 2.0. YARN, a cluster resource management layer whose acronym stands for Yet Another Resource Manager, was released last October. It allows Hadoop to do more than just batch-oriented tasks because computing clusters can be allocated as needed to match workloads. "The ability to understand data and put it to effective use is now more crucial than ever," said Colin Mahony, general manager of HP Vertica. Mahony said Hortonworks has consistently addressed thebusiness and technology needs of its customers in this new era of information and data. "And we look forward to partnering with the Hortonworks team to deliver innovative big data solutions to our customers," he added. Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden said his company was looking forward to working with HP to help their joint customers move to a more modern data architecture. "Through deep integration with Enterprise Apache Hadoop, HP customers will be able to easily build their next generation of applications with the Hortonworks Data Platform," Bearden said. HP CTO Joins Hortonworks Board The enhanced partnership comes with an added bonus for HP: a seat on the Hortonworks board of directors, to be filled by Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer at HP. This will allow the companies to work together more efficiently on Hadoop strategies. As the leader of HP's cloud business, Fink is helping move the industry to cloud-based provider and consumption models. During his nearly 30 years at HP, Fink has led the company's open-source and Linux strategies. Fink said joining forces with Hortonworks demonstrated HP's continued commitment to open-source technology for the enterprise. "I'm excited to be able to partner with the Hortonworksleadership team to help them deliver flexible, tailored, open solutions to customers on the industry's most powerful big data platform," he said.