IBM and Hortonworks Announce an Expanded Partnership

IBM and Hortonworks recently announced they have expanded their partnership with a focus on delivering data science and machine learning capabilities to more developers across the Apache Hadoop ecosystem. The expanded partnership will bring together Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP), IBM Data Science Experience, and IBM Big SQL to create integrated solutions designed to help users better analyze and manage large volumes of data and speed up the pace of data-driven decision making.

"One of the major impetuses for this partnership is what I would describe as the changing data landscape in all of our enterprise clients. How do they leverage their existing investments around databases and warehouses, how do they extend that to the world of Hadoop, and then even further to the variety of open-source database variants that are available,” says Rob Thomas, general manager of IBM Analytics. "Big SQL is…the SQL engine that brings all those together so that it can connect with current applications and future application investments. That's the key part of this."

Thomas adds that the alliance will focus on "solving that governance problem around both compliance and insights."

"When we think about data governance, there are really two use cases: data governance for compliance, making sure you're compliant with a specific regulation, and around insights, which is governing data to provide self-service analytics to all the users in an organization," Thomas says. "That’s where our joint work around Apache Atlas [data governance and metadata framework for Hadoop] becomes really important."

The two companies are building on their long-standing relationship in a number of ways. Hortonworks will resell IBM Data Science Experience with HDP, their Hadoop distribution platform, and adopt it as its strategic data science platform, while IBM will adopt HDP for its Hadoop distribution and fully integrate it with its Data Science Experience and Machine Learning platforms. Additionally, the duo will create new solution bundles that integrate HDP with IBM Big SQL.

"IBM's got warehousing database technology; Hortonworks is the leader in Hadoop—combine what we do together around governance, layer on data science, machine learning, and Big SQL, [and] that really completes the picture for an enterprise client that's trying to move down this journey. That's the strategic focus and the intent for what we're doing with this partnership," Thomas says. "IBM will be adopting HDP as our standard distribution for Hadoop so that we can deliver an optimized packaged offering into the market."

Rob Bearden, CEO at Hortonworks, adds that "DSX [IBM Data Science Experience] and Big SQL will be the strategic platforms that Hortonworks goes to market with generally, and specifically around our existing customer base for HDP and HDF."

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