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June 9, 2015

Cloudera Hub Adds VoltDB as ‘Fast Data’ Front End

In-memory relational database specialist VoltDB said its fast data front end that targets emerging data hubs running Hadoop has been certified on the latest release of Cloudera’s enterprise platform.

The developer of the scale-out SQL database said Tuesday (June 9) the certification under Cloudera Enterpise CDH5 targets the growing need for real-time data analysis as the Internet of Things (IoT) emerges in the cloud. The shift has led to efforts aimed at capturing and processing “fast data” to create new interactive applications.

VoltDB, Bedford, Mass., said it is looking for more ways to deliver fast data analysis capabilities as enterprises rely on Hadoop to underpin sprawling data hubs used to build applications and new business processes. “By partnering with Cloudera, we are integrating fast data with big data, enabling Hadoop users to ingest data as it arrives, perform real-time analytics in-memory and make immediate decisions in real time,” Eric Sansonetti, VoltDB’s vice president of business partnerships, noted in a statement.

Observers note that organizations are flocking to big data solutions such as Hadoop and other static tools as a replacement for earlier tools that required data to be pulled into main memory. In-memory approaches like VoltDB’s aim to bridge time and data gaps with support for analyzing terabytes of data in-memory. That has opened up the prospect of faster big data analysis on datasets that were too large to manage a few years ago.

The fast analysis trend via in-memory databases is also being driven by the rise of data hubs. Cloudera, Palo Alto, Calif., which helped bring Hadoop to the cloud in 2013, has been a leading proponent of the enterprise data hub approach as data analysis and cloud computing merge. Cloudera’s data hub features a layer of what the company calls “pervasive analytics” via a unified framework and data formats. Government customers, including the CIA, have embraced the approach as a way to replace data silos. The result, Cloudera asserts, is that “everyone is working off the same datasets.”

Cloudera’s certification of VoltDB’s in-memory database aims to speed big data analytics through support of the Hadoop ecosystem along with SQL. The integration of fast data analytics with big data aims to allow Hadoop users to ingest data on the fly, and then handle real-time analytics in-memory.

Cloudera said the addition of a fast-data analytics front end would help extend enterprise data hub capabilities as the IoT begins to flood IT infrastructure with huge volumes of unstructured data. Indeed, Hadoop is increasingly the repository for big unstructured data, including call logs, click streams, and location information. This torrent ends up in the Hadoop Distributed File System, where data scientists and analysts use advanced algorithms and data mining tools to discern patterns.

VoltDB announced last year it would devote the proceeds of an $8 million funding round to support expansion of next-generation applications enabled by big data and the IoT.

Recent items:

VoltDB Reaches Out to Hadoop For Fast Data Analytics

VoltDB Nabs $8 Million in VC Funding to Tackle IoT

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