Tableau Announces Direct Access to Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH) for Easy, Big Data Analytics

Seattle, WA – November 9, 2011— Tableau Software, the global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence (BI) software, today announced support for Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH) in Tableau 6.1. People can point Tableau to the Apache Hadoop distribution from Cloudera and instantly create reports, data visualizations and dashboards without any programming or coding. This makes Hadoop data sources as accessible for analytics as a spreadsheet or common database.

Tableau’s support for CDH includes a native data connection and new functions to work with a variety of data types, including XML. Hadoop is fast becoming a preferred way to deal with huge or unstructured data. Examples of common uses for Hadoop include ecommerce data, web log data, XML objects and many other kinds of critical business data.

“Tableau’s solution for Hadoop is elegant and performs very well,” said Ravi Bandaru, product manager of advanced analytics and data visualization at Nokia. “This obviates the need for us to move huge log data into a relational store before analyzing it. This makes the whole process seamless and efficient.”

“A number of key business and technology trends are emerging to disrupt the traditional data management and processing landscape,” advises Gartner in its January 2011 research note “Hadoop and MapReduce: Big Data Analytics.” Gartner further suggests, “Traditional IT infrastructures are simply not able to meet the demands of this new situation. Consider adopting big data analytics and the Hadoop open source project to meet the challenges of the business and technology landscape.”

Tableau’s native data connector to Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop will be generally available with Tableau 7.0, the next version of the product due to be released in winter 2012. Currently any Tableau customer working with Tableau 6.1.4 can get access to the beta Hadoop connector. Access is via Hive and the new Cloudera-developed Hive ODBC driver. Hive is a common component part of Hadoop distributions.

“A top priority for many organizations is unlocking the business value from their Big Data. Apache Hadoop has the power to do just that and is enabling the enterprise to analyze vast amounts of unstructured data in new ways,” said Ed Albanese, head of Business Development at Cloudera. “We’re excited about Tableau’s support for Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop because it allows joint customers to point and click their way to new insights and then visualize the data stored within Hadoop to gain real-world business value.”

“Data is not only getting bigger but also more complex,” said Dan Jewett, Tableau Software’s vice president, product management. “Our mission is to help people see and understand their data, no matter how big or complex. That’s why we work with new technologies such as Hadoop and partners such as Cloudera. It’s what our customers expect.” Tableau is currently running a beta for its 7.0 Desktop and Server software which involves more than 1,500 customers. More information about Tableau’s connector to Cloudera’s Hadoop can be found here and a demo can be found here. Tableau is sponsoring Cloudera’s HadoopWorld November 8–9, 2011 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in New York City.

About Tableau Software
Tableau Software helps people see and understand data. Ranked by Gartner in 2011 as the world’s fastest growing business intelligence company, Tableau helps anyone quickly and easily analyze, visualize and share information. More than 6,500 customers across most industries get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. Tens of thousands of people use Tableau to share data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableausoftware.com/trial.