Hortonworks’ August 13 announcement of Data Platform 1.3, a version of standard Hadoop version that runs native on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, is a win for users and for both Hortonworks and Microsoft, writes Wikibon Principal Research Contributor and Big Data Analyst Jeff Kelly. First it is a win for the many companies who run their data centers on Windows servers rather than Linux. IDC estimates that 75 percent of x86 servers are sold with Windows and only 25% with Linux, and until now that large group of Windows server users were locked out of the Hadoop Big Data revolution.

It is also an important step for Hortonworks, which, as a pure Open Source company, gives away the licenses for HDP and makes its money providing service and support. For that to work, it has to develop a large community of users, and this very large potential virgin market can provide that.

It also is an important move for Microsoft, which is trying to preserve and build on the huge popularity of Excel for business intelligence. While the BI vendors don’t consider Excel a “true” BI tool, it remains the most popular go-to platform for ad hoc data analysis among business end-users, mainly because it is comparatively easy to use and allows end users to develop multiple iterations of their analysis to answer specific questions quickly. Microsoft is trying to expand its presence by adding more capabilities while preserving that core ease-of-use for non-technical users. Integrating it with the Hortonworks Windows platform opens the world of Big Data analysis to Excel users at their desktops. It also defends its large Wintel market from erosion as users add Linux servers to support internal Hadoop installations.

Hortonworks Data Platform 1.3 is portable between Windows and Linux, which gives potential users the assurance that their environments will not be isolated from the core thrust of Hadoop development, which is happening on Linux. It also means that they can take advantage of the high level of support available from the Open Source Linux community by porting their platform to a Linux server if necessary. This is important, Kelly writes, as it will take several years for the nascent Windows Hadoop community to develop a similar level of support. It also means that companies that do not want to pay Hortonworks for support can tap that Open Source community for help.

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