HPCC Systems tunes big data platform for Amazon cloud

HPCC Systems, the division of LexisNexis thats pushing a big-data processing-and-delivery platform, has tuned its software to run on Amazons cloud computing platform. Interested developers can now experiment with the open source software without having to wrangle physical servers for that purpose, which brings HPCC one step closer to establishing itself as a viable alternative to the uber-popular Hadoop framework.

When I last spoke with HPCC Systems CTO Armando Escalante in September, he explained that although he thinks his company will have little trouble attracting risk-averse large enterprise and government customers, it will be tougher to establish a developer ecosystem similar to what Hadoop has built. As good as HPCC might be and at least some analysts are starting to sing its praises having a vibrant community goes a long way.

Hadoop has no shortage of startups, large vendors and individual developers committed to it already. That gives potential users the confidence that not only will Hadoop products be supported for a long time, but that the code will continue to improve and interoperate across a variety of different vendors data products, Hadoop-based or not.

Microsoft killing its Dr! yad data -processing platform to focus on Hadoop opened a door for HPCC Systems, but also served to block its entry into the room. Now there are really only two unstructured-data processing platforms of note, but having Microsoft on the Hadoop bandwagon is yet another sign that Hadoop is for real.

Making HPCC run on AWS or any cloud is a good start for HPCC Systems, as it provides a low-risk option for developers to get started on the platform. It will be even more appealing when HPCCs software is supported by AWSs Elastic MapReduce service, which the company says is the next step. Assuming one has data there to work with, the cloud is a great place to get started with big data tools because they generally require server clusters that are cheaper to rent than to buy, in the short term.

Technically, HPCC has only tuned a portion of its platform the Thor Data Refinery Cluster to run on Amazon Web Services, but thats the part that matters most. Thor does the data-processing for HPCC, which makes it the apples-to-apples comparison with Hadoop. The platform also consists of the Roxie Data Query Cluster, a data-warehouse and query layer thats akin to the higher-level Hive and HBase projects that have been developed for Hadoop.

HPCC Systems is quick to point out, however, that its platform all utilizes a single language, Enterprise Control Language, whereas Hadoop itself uses MapReduce, but projects such as HBase and Hive have their own languages.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

China Watch: Magical New Maglev, Fire the Ambassador?

Image
A list of what the Wall Street Journal’s reporters in China are reading and watching online, periodically updated throughout the day. (NOTE: WSJ has not verified items in the ‘News’ section and does not vouch for their accuracy.) Last updated: 7:22 pm Beijing time. NEWS: Chinese scientists at Southwest Jiaotong University have developed a model maglev train that runs in a vacuum tube and can travel as fast as an airplane, the Global Times reports . Whether it will ever be put to use is another question, with one expert quoted in the story calling the train “complete scientific fantasy.” The first of two planes sent to retrieve up 480 Chinese nationals stranded in Egypt has landed in Beijing, Xinhua reports . Meanwhile, Hainan Airlines today dispatched another plane to pick up some of the 300 or so who remain in Egypt. It’s not clear from the reports if all of them will fit on the third plane. CNET interviews theater/tech geek Mike Daisey, creator of “The Agony and the
Keep reading

Live Blog: GMIC G-Startup Competition 2011

Image
Technode team today is covering Global Mobile Internet Conference, both in Auditorium 1 with keynotes speakers including Charles Chao (CEO of SINA), John Liu (Google China) and in Auditorium 2 with G-Startup Competition. We will be live-blogging (and live-tweeting) G-Startup Competition here. And reporting in more details on keynotes and various interviews afterwards. Stay tuned and follow us on @technodechina #TheGMIC #gstartup ! Related posts: G-Startup Competition Prizes Announced, So Apply Now! Mobile Blog Blogging anywhere and anytime Global Mobile Game Awards at GMIC2011 Submit Your Mobile Game!
Keep reading

Chinese Pinterest Huaban.com Grabs Money and Attention

Image
Out of all the Chinese Pinterests we mentioned earlier , Huaban (, or petals) is decidedly the one that stands out from the crowd to receive US$ more than one million in Series A round of funding from KPCB, less than ten days after the website went online. The Hangzhou-based service was crafted by the startup behind Yupoo , one of the earliest and best Flickr-clone in China founded about 7 years ago. With exact the same idea, features and even web design and layout, Huaban let users collect (just like Pin with Pinterest) pictures by uploading local files or grabbing one from existing webpage. You can recollect (like Repin) whatever attractive to you and save them onto your Huaban (like board) and Like pictures collected by other users. Moreover, you can create boards under different categories to organize all the pictures you collected. Pinterest per se has seen huge growth with rapid rising traffic in the States, the site has 3.2 million UV monthly with growth rate over 100%, topped
Keep reading