Actuate, Cloudera Team for Big Data Business Intelligence
Actuate and Cloudera are working to ease the way for BIRT developers to integrate with the latter's Apache Hadoop-based products, the companies announced today.
Actuate is a main backer of the Eclipse Foundation open source Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) project. The company develops a commercial suite of products based on the technology called ActuateOne. A favorite among analysts, Actuate's software adds enterprise-class capabilities including graphically rich visualizations, ad-hoc reporting via a browser UI, in-memory analytics and mobile extensions.
Last year, the company announced Hadoop and MapReduce support using Hive Query Language in the release of BIRT 3.7. It allows for Big Data analysis, reporting and visualizations using the Hadoop framework as a native data source. Today, BIRT developers have one less Hadoop implementation to be wary of, namely Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop, according to Nobby Akiha, Actuate's senior vice president of Marketing.
His company will be “working with Cloudera to provide best-in-class support to the 1.5 million BIRT developers worldwide who can use Apache Hadoop for developing BIRT-based information applications,” he states, in a company release. As such, “ActuateOne provides out-of-the-box access to Apache Hadoop data,” according to Actuate.
A bundled JDBC driver in conjunction with Hive Query Language and the Hive interface streamlines the process of accessing massive amounts of data stored in Hadoop. In turn, developers can churn out BIRT-based applications and dashboards faster and with fewer hoops to jump through.
Cloudera Looms Large over Big Data
For Cloudera, it's an opportunity to extend its platform's reach in not only the enterprise Big Data analytics market, but also within the open source developer community. The company is a top Apache Hadoop contributor and vendor. In addition to its own Hadoop-based platform, it offers certification, consultancy and training services.
Cloudera's profile has grown in recent months as IT leaders turn to its tecnology to power their Big Data analytics offerings. In January, Oracle announced that Cloudera's software would power its Big Data Appliance. Last month, IBM announced that it was adding Cloudera support for its Big Data solutions going forward.
Ed Albanese, head of Global Alliances at Cloudera, says in a company release, “The value of open source software is something that Cloudera passionately believes in, and we are constantly looking for ways to make Apache Hadoop more accessible for enterprises.” He adds that allying itself with Actuate will strengthen its developer ecosystem.
Albanese says his company anticipates “that this alliance will open the door for Actuate's extensive community of BIRT developers to access Cloudera's products and services to explore and analyze their Big Data.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
