MapR Technologies Inc. is one of the top “big three” vendors for Hadoop-based commercial distributions. They have added new offerings to the Big Data Test Drive program at Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS).
AWS test drives are a technology partnership initiative that provides preconfigured, preintegrated solutions to help enterprises explore Big Data analytics. The solutions are available for educational, demonstration, and evaluation purposes to all organizations that have enough AWS time.
AWS offers dozens of Big Data test drives, ranging in length from Introduction to Splunk to Oracle BI Applications, to the DataStax Cassandra Platform, which is intermixed with MapR offerings.
These MapR offerings offer several third-party packages to work with sensitive data, SQL based analytics, data visualization, and more. They include Dataguise DgSecure and HPE Vertica, Apache Drill, and TIBCO Spotfire Software.
MapR announced the test drives in a statement last week. Customers can launch, log in, and learn about third-party Big Data IT solutions powered by AWS CloudFormation in less than an hour using a step-by–step lab manual and video.
MapR offers four solutions that can be integrated with third-party software.
MapR software is one solution. It can be used with Apache Drill, an open-source, schema-free SQL query engine that supports Hadoop, NoSQL data storage and cloud storage. MapR stated that customers will get hands-on experience with MapR and Apache Drill to extract immediate insights out of semi-structured data. “Users will interact using sample data hosted on a functional cluster of three MapR nodes. They can use multiple interfaces, including the command line and Tableau business analytics software. The lab takes about 1-1.5 hours to complete.
Companies can deal with sensitive data using the Datguise solution. MapR stated that Dataguise accurately detects and protects sensitive data to allow Big Data to be used safely. “Users can quickly set up a sandbox using MapR and DgSecure already installed and configured. DgSecure’s tutorial guides users through sensitive data detection, encryption, and masking.
The HPE Vertica test drive enables SQL analytics to be applied to the massive amounts of Hadoop data lakes. MapR stated that users can create a functional cluster of three nodes and install Vertica’s SQL database co-located within the MapR Hadoop environment. “Users have 4 hours to evaluate and query Hadoop ORCFile-formatted data using standard ANSI SQL queries.”
MapR teamed with Syntelli Solutions Inc. to test Apache Drill and Spotfire. Syntelli Solutions Inc. is an analytics company that specializes in Big Data, Data Science and Analytics Application Development. Spotfire is data visualization and analysis software.
MapR stated that the AWS Test Drive demonstrated ease in querying complex data, discovering schemas and finding business insight with Apache Drill. These capabilities are highlighted in an interactive experience that includes a fully functional Hadoop cluster with Spotfire and sample data-sets.
AWS test drives are another vehicle vendor developed to help enterprises get started in Big Data. This is a complex endeavor with many challenges and many options. Other vendor initiatives include other types of Big Data “onramps,” including simplified Big Data appliances, packaged Big Data Services, labs, and more.
Matt Lescohier, MapR executive, stated that AWS is a highly scalable platform that customers can use to spin up MapR clusters. “MapR
