HP Updates Big Data Strategy

Hewlett-Packard fleshed out its big data strategy this week with the roll out of a new version of its analytics platform at a company event along with an “accelerator” program that would give developers access to APIs on its Haven big data platform at a discounted rate.

The new addition to the Haven platform called “Excavator” targets analysis of high-speed streaming data from a variety of sources, including the Internet of Things. It is also designed to improve SQL and machine log analytics along with Hadoop performance, HP said Tuesday (Aug. 11).

Excavator has been integrated with Apache Kafka, a distributed messaging system for data streaming, to improve real-time analysis of data generated by mobile and other connected IoT devices. HP also said the new tool would help automate data load-and-query functionality that would combine real-time analytics with a variety of applications.

The company also said it was boosting support for Hadoop by collaborating with Hortonworks to develop a new access layer that would enable SQL queries to run directly on Hive’s Optimized Row Columnar (ORC) files. A new ORC reader would also improve access to Hadoop Distributed File System data. The result, the partners said, would be support on the Hortonworks data platform for HP Vertica for SQL on Hadoop.

The upgrades are also being promoted as providing a ten-fold performance increase over traditional Hadoop distributions for a broader set of use cases.

Other Excavator features include a machine data log text search capability, enhanced SQL analytics and improved third-party cloud interoperability provided by a wizard-based capability that eases data loading from Amazon Web Services’ Simple Storage Service to HP Vertica.

The company also announced that it is releasing to developers its “Flex Table” schema designed to handles semi-structured data.

Meanwhile, HP’s new Haven Startup Accelerator program is intended to provide enterprise-like big data capabilities to emerging companies. Along with data analytics, the initiative will provide application delivery management software. Qualifying startups will be eligible for free use of the community versions of Vertica and HP IDOL, its next-generation data analytics platform. Discounts will be offered for the “premium” versions of both tools.

HP also announced a framework of technology and best practices designed to speed development of next-generation analytics applications. The framework adds quick-start visualizations, syndicated data feeds along with open on-premise and cloud-based APIs to the Haven platform.

Availability of the Haven big data offerings and services is scheduled for this fall.

Also this week, HP said it would demonstrate Vertica SQL on Hadoop running on its asymmetric big data reference architecture. That framework was “purpose-built” on HP Moonshot and Apollo servers, the company said. These along with its ProLiant DL380 clusters and other Apollo processor and storage configurations leverage the new architecture to optimize big data workloads, the company added.

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