Hortonworks and Red Hat Deepen Strategic Alliance

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 16th February, 2014 – Hortonworks, the leading contributor to and provider of enterprise Apache™ Hadoop®, and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced today they have expanded their relationship through the formation of a strategic alliance encompassing the integration of product lines, joint go-to-market initiatives and collaborative customer support. The companies also announced the availability of the beta program for the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) plug-in for Red Hat Storage.

Hadoop continues to gain traction in enterprise big data implementations. A recent IDC study commissioned by Red Hat, titled “Trends in Enterprise Hadoop Deployments” reports, “... 32% of respondents indicated that their firms have existing Hadoop deployments. An additional 31% indicated that they had plans to deploy it within 12 months. And finally 36% said that their Hadoop deployment schedule could go beyond 12 months.”

A comprehensive open source approach to the Hadoop platform can address the growing requirements of key enterprise stakeholders and their big data initiatives. With an enterprise Apache Hadoop platform that is tightly integrated with open hybrid cloud technologies, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, OpenJDK, Red Hat JBoss Middleware, and Red Hat Storage, the two companies plan to deliver infrastructure solutions that enable the next generation of data-driven applications. This will enable enterprise stakeholders to more quickly analyze big data to realize business insights and value.

Immediate initiatives that are included in the expanded Hortonworks and Red Hat strategic alliance include

• Data architects will be able to combine data in a single, scalable open source repository. Available in beta software version, the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) combined with Red Hat Storage provides a secure and resilient general-purpose storage pool with multiple interfaces, including Hadoop, POSIX and OpenStack Object Storage (Swift). This can improve flexibility and speed the development and deployment of new and existing analytic workflows.

• Enterprise operators and application developers will be able to elastically scale their Hadoop infrastructure to meet changing demand with an open and flexible platform that supports a full range of deployment scenarios – from physical to virtual and cloud. HDP combined with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenJDK provides faster development of enterprise-strength analytic applications. HDP combined with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform gives elastic Hadoop services on a secure, private cloud infrastructure to lower costs and improve flexibility.

• Developers will be able to quickly build new analytic applications to take advantage of new data types and data analysts will have improved access to data through standard interfaces. HDP combined with Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization integrates Hadoop with existing information sources including data warehouses, SQL and NoSQL databases, enterprise and cloud applications, and flat and XML files. The solution creates business-friendly, reusable and virtual data models with unified views by combining and transforming data from multiple sources including Hadoop. This creates integrated data available on-demand for external applications through standard SQL and web services interfaces.

Supporting Quotes
Shaun Connolly, vice president, corporate strategy, Hortonworks
“At the rapid rate that enterprises expand their Hadoop requirements – due to the business consistently identifying new use cases and more internal stakeholders – the Red Hat and Hortonworks strategic alliance provides a seamless approach to enabling the next generation of data-driven applications. Our mutual customers complement both their Hadoop strategy and commitment to community-driven open source innovation.”

Ranga Rangachari, vice president and general manager, Storage and Big Data, Red Hat
“Data – specifically data running processed with Hadoop – is the killer application for the open hybrid cloud. Enterprises are looking to IT solution providers to help with a dramatic reduction in time-to-results for their big data projects. Red Hat’s strategic alliance with Hortonworks is focused on helping customers with efficiency and agility as they embark on big data projects.”

Matthew Aslett, research director, data management and analytics, 451 Research
“Hortonworks and Red Hat are natural partners given the strong commitment to open source on both sides. The strategic alliance will benefit Hortonworks and Red Hat customers looking to develop and deploy Hadoop applications, as well as the wider Hadoop community as the results of joint-development work are contributed back into Apache Hadoop.”

About Hortonworks
Hortonworks is the only 100-percent open source software provider to develop, distribute and support an Apache Hadoop platform explicitly built and tested for enterprise-grade deployments. Developed by the original architects, builders and operators of Hadoop, Hortonworks stewards the core and delivers the critical services required by the enterprise to reliably and effectively run Hadoop at scale. Our distribution, Hortonworks Data Platform, provides an open and stable foundation for enterprises and a growing ecosystem to build and deploy big data solutions. Hortonworks also provides unmatched technical support, training and certification programs. Get started and Go from Zero to Hadoop in 15 Minutes with the Hortonworks’ Sandbox.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT.

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