Hewlett-Packard has injected $50 million into Hortonworks' coffers and inserted its chief technology officer into the big data company's board of directors.
The two companies hope their new partnership will advance the adoption of Hadoop, open-source software used to crunch large amounts of data.
The partnership with Hortonworks will marry HP's HAVEn software to the Hadoop-based Hortonworks Data Platform. The relationship with Hortonworks and the injection of cash attest to HP's faith in Hadoop, as the Hortonworks Data Platform software was developed by the original architects of the open-source framework on which it runs.
Hortonworks's Hadoop development efforts encompass the storing, transferring and processing of large amounts of data from large and midsize companies. The company's most recent efforts have concerned improving the performance of its Hadoop platform during exchanges with customer data store, especially structured query language (SQL) databases.
Attracting more enterprise users to big data solutions requires that established players streamline the ability for clients to leverage the evolving platforms. Colin Mahony, general manager of HP Vertica, said he believes his company's deal with Hortonworks will help clients better manage the increasingly large amounts of data that businesses collect.
"The ability to understand data and put it to effective use is now more crucial than ever," said Mahony. "Hortonworks has demonstrated outstanding dedication and expertise in addressing the business and technology needs of its customers within 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."
While HP has supported Hadoop vendors in the past, Mahony said his company's new agreement with Hortonworks serves at the first time it will work directly with the open-source, big data platform.
"We've never really sold Hadoop, nor supported it directly," said Mahony. "To date, we'd meet with a Hadoop vendor and take the deal to market. What's different about this strategic partnership is that we're now committing to resell the Hortonworks Data Platform as part of HAVEn, and support it as well."
Beyond the integration of HP and Hortonworks' technology through software engineering, Martin Fink, executive VP and chief technology officer at HP, has joined Hortonworks' board of directors to help steer his company's new partner strategically.
"Our partnership with Hortonworks exemplifies HP's longstanding commitment to open source technology for the enterprise," said Fink. "I'm excited to be able to partner with the Hortonworks leadership team to help them deliver flexible, tailored, open solutions to customers on the industry's most powerful big data platform."
