Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop Reviews and Pricing

it_user364431

Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jan 5, 2016

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The Cloudera Hadoop manager eased the work of orchestrating scripts.

Pros and Cons

"Very solid. Excellent user experience. good documentation."

"More customization, better documentation for the API (basically it's the same for all Cloudera Hadoop components)."

What is most valuable?

Very solid. Excellent user experience. good documentation. The Cloudera Manager is definitely a deal breaker. Packaging for Ubuntu is great for all the components.

How has it helped my organization?

Before the introduction of Cloudera Manager (that actually works), all the orchestration was done with scripts and Chef, and inexperienced team members had difficulties to participate in maintenance. The Cloudera Hadoop manager eased the work.

What needs improvement?

More customization, better documentation for the API (basically it's the same for all Cloudera Hadoop components).

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two years.

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and support?

Didn't use dedicated service or support. The documentation is a bit of a mess, but it is decent and sufficient.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward. The CDH VirtualBox with preconfigured environment helps for demonstration purposes

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Hortonworks, but chose Cloudera because of my familiarity with it.

What other advice do I have?

Do a comparisomn with Hortonworks as it's always good to compare to another major vendor

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user357645

Data/Big Data Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 16, 2015

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We were trying AWS Impala as well, but Cloudera won as it had more functionality with HUE, Sqoop, and Solr as built-in functions. At times, heavy queries do not finish at all.

Pros and Cons

"Cloudera won as it had more functionality with HUE, Sqoop, and Solr as built-in functions."

"Sometimes the heavy queries do not finish at all."

What is most valuable?

Mostly HUE, Impala, Sqoop, and Hive. The impala-shell command is number one.

How has it helped my organization?

We are working on research for genomic data looking for specific genes and variances. Even Hive was not good enough to process it correctly, only with Impala are we getting results quicker.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes the heavy queries do not finish at all. It would be good to see the progress of heavy script in the impala shell or get some way to access it.

For how long have I used the solution?

We started to use Cloudera about one-and-a-half years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are having some issues with stability and are speaking to Cloudera support.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's acceptable.

Technical Support:

It's acceptable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were trying AWS Impala as well, but Cloudera won as it had more functionality with HUE, Sqoop, and Solr as built-in functions.

How was the initial setup?

We have struggled a bit in installing and configuring Cloudera Manager on the AWS cluster. For now, it is good.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation only using our team and resources. It was a hard start, but an easy landing.

What other advice do I have?

Cloudera is good for mid to big company, but small ones can use AWS Impala/HUE. Go to training, or you are going to spend many hours to find short answers. The Cloudera solution is big with good documentation, but you need to know what and where to read first.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide

Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop

June 2026

Free Report: Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.

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902,456 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user356769

Director of Data Architecture at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Dec 16, 2015

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It has enabled us to move BI out of our OLTP database and build a data warehouse, but although Spark under rapid development, it needs improvement.

Pros and Cons

"We switched because Cloudera just works."

What is most valuable?

Cloudera Manager
Impala
Sentry

How has it helped my organization?

It has enabled us to move BI out of our OLTP database and build a data warehouse.

What needs improvement?

Some areas are under rapid development, like Spark.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for three years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with the current version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with the current version.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with the current version.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's excellent.

Technical Support:

It's excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched because Cloudera just works.

How was the initial setup?

Cloudera Manager greatly simplifies initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What other advice do I have?

Make sure you have clearly articulated, doable use cases before you start.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user347787

Lead Instructor at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 29, 2015

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It has fairly matured tools like Cloudera Navigator and Cloudera Manager, but it is lacking Spark SQL support.

Pros and Cons

"Professional support enabled us to provide great customer service and our clients are able to perform proactive maintenance in an efficient manner."

"Spark with R integration is missing. Also, it is lacking Spark SQL support."

Valuable Features:

The features I find most valuable are--

Enterprise security features (authentication, authorization, data governance, and data protection)
Proactive support
Training

Improvements to My Organization:

Providing robust infrastructure
Fairly matured tools like Cloudera Navigator, Cloudera Manager, etc.
Professional support enabled us to provide great customer service
Our clients are able to perform proactive maintenance in an efficient manner

Room for Improvement:

Spark with R integration is missing. Also, it is lacking Spark SQL support.

Use of Solution:

I've used it for over eight months.

Deployment Issues:

We faced issues in deploying Azure with Cloudera. Our machine hard disks were getting corrupted whenever we used to get patches on weekends. Now these have been resolved.

Customer Service:

They offer excellent support.

Initial Setup:

It was complex because we were doing first time deployment of Cloudera on Azure. Also complexity was high due to lot of security features.

Implementation Team:

We are Big Data consultants, so we implement it.

Other Advice:

There were initial hiccups when deploying Cloudera on Azure but now this combo is working fine in production, so you can go for it.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user347592

Senior Analyst - Strategy Analytics at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Nov 28, 2015

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We were able to utilize data which was untapped previously, but the documentation on Hive could be more standardized.

Pros and Cons

"We were able to utilize data which was untapped previously."

"It needs more standardized documentation on Hive."

What is most valuable?

The features we've found most valuable are--

Fast processing of data
Easy to manipulate using HiveQL

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to utilize data which was untapped previously. We've got great use cases now to drive business revenue.

What needs improvement?

It needs more standardized documentation on Hive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two and a half years.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's great.

Technical Support:

The level of technical support is great.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No previous solution was used, and senior management chose to bring it in.

How was the initial setup?

I was not directly involved in deployment.

What about the implementation team?

It was done by the vendor team, who were great.

What other advice do I have?

It's good for Big Data analytics.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user345477

Software Design Engineer at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 28, 2015

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It automates the installation and configuration of Hadoop, but it should not provide generic logs for failed installations.

Pros and Cons

"Implement the free version as it provides enough services."

"We're currently trying to perform a failed installation and it's little bit difficult. It should restart the installation where it left off."

What is most valuable?

It automates the installation and configuration of Hadoop and different Big Data services.

What needs improvement?

We're currently trying to perform a failed installation and it's little bit difficult. It should restart the installation where it left off.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

In some cases, logs are clear about failed services.
While deploying in some failed steps it should not provide generic logs.

How are customer service and technical support?

7/10 - they have forums where they will answer your query within a day.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Hortonworks and changed because Cloudera is simpler and more interactive.

How was the initial setup?

It was very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house. They have good technical support to help with implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We use the free version, and they provide everything we need.

What other advice do I have?

Implement the free version as it provides enough services. If you want a backup service, or any extra service, then you can implement the enterprise version.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user347565

Lead Bigdata Developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 28, 2015

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We used it to build an enterprise data hub, but Apache Kudu needs improvement.

Pros and Cons

"We used it to build an enterprise data hub."

"Apache Kudu needs improvement. It's a real-time updatable database."

Valuable Features:

The most valuable feature for me are--

Sentry - provides granular-level security
Impala - open-source, MPP database

Improvements to My Organization:

We used it to build an enterprise data hub.

Room for Improvement:

Apache Kudu needs improvement. It's a real-time updatable database.

Implementation Team:

We used a vendor team to implement the solution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user347535

Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 28, 2015

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It provides the ability to update configuration through the UI. I think licensing by size of data managed would be a useful improvement.

Pros and Cons

"It made Hadoop easy to use and made it easy to get started."

"The licensing was by node."

Valuable Features

The features most valuable to me are--

Installation (very easy initial setup)
Configuration
Ability to update configuration through UI

Improvements to My Organization

It made Hadoop easy to use and made it easy to get started.

Room for Improvement

The licensing was by node. I think licensing by size of data managed would be a useful improvement.

Use of Solution

I used Cloudera Manager to evaluate Hadoop and HBase for one year.

Deployment Issues

No issues encountered.

Stability Issues

No issues encountered.

Scalability Issues

No issues encountered.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

It's excellent.

Technical Support:

It's excellent.

Initial Setup

It was very easy.

Implementation Team

It was implemented in-house.

Other Advice

It's a great product and must be evaluated if you are planning to use Hadoop..

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user347172

System Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 28, 2015

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For the clusters using CM, we are able to more tightly control and manage the configuration of all nodes in the clusters. But, it has HBase 1.0 stability issues and processing speed needs improvement.

Pros and Cons

"For the clusters using CM, we are able to more tightly control and manage the configuration of all nodes in the clusters."

"Cloudera 5 is currently very unstable. Between two Cloudera 5 clusters, we have an incident at least twice a week due to what are now outstanding bugs."

What is most valuable?

Cluster rolling restarts
Cluster wide configuration management

How has it helped my organization?

For the clusters using CM, we are able to more tightly control and manage the configuration of all nodes in the clusters.

We are currently running six production clusters totaling 900+ nodes, and are building three more clusters. Knowing that if someone has some custom configuration on a node that they haven’t communicated out, and that I can ignore that configuration and bring that node into line with where we’ve decided to run the cluster, is very beneficial.

What needs improvement?

HBase 1.0 stability issues and processing speed is a major area for improvement. Right now, our Cloudera 5 clusters run four to seven times slower than our Cloudera 4 clusters using our storm and kafka topologies, which causes real-time processing to be a major challenge.

CM’s API is very limited and difficult when used on multiple clusters in the same CM instance

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used it for approximately two years. We also use Cloudera Manager, which is 6/10.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cloudera 5 is currently very unstable. Between two Cloudera 5 clusters, we have an incident at least twice a week due to what are now outstanding bugs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very easy to deploy and scale as large as you want. Once created on the CM management cluster, is difficult to scale up as needed, as you add more clusters to the same CM instance.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No previous solution was used.

How was the initial setup?

We were already running one production cluster with approximately 75 nodes when I joined, so I’m not familiar with what was needed to get the initial production cluster up. Once I joined, I assisted in standing up the additional nodes and clusters using our chef automation.

What about the implementation team?

In house via chef automation. Chef, or similar systems, makes it much simpler to stand up large scale clusters. That said, I have not used or evaluated vendor team implementation methods.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user2700

Architect at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 12, 2012

Cloudera Manager Hadoop Cluster Installation Evaluation

I decided to give Cloudera's Manager software a try, and was pleasantly surprised at how simple it becomes to deploy a substantial Hadoop cluster.

I began by creating an automated kickstart installer for RHEL 6.2 (booting off a custom isolinux image created for this purpose), with all of the required packages, so that from server power on to creating a 20+ node cluster takes less than 15 minutes. The limitation for the number of concurrent node installs is based on network and disk i/o bottlenecks on the deployment server. If you wanted to PXE boot the cluster in a production environment, you would want a bank of servers behind a load balancer, optimally.

Once the Manager is installed on the master node, you simply log into the administration webpage, and from there, add all of the hosts to deploy the cluster on. One nice discovery was that it takes advantage of regular expressions for host names or IP addresses, so you can literally create a cluster containing hundreds of nodes with a trivial amount of effort.

Once the software is deployed, you can select the roles for each of the servers. It's an incredibly painless deployment. That being said, it is not without its flaws.

One of the primary flaws is that all of the configuration and log files are in non-standard locations, and are split in non-standard ways. It's obvious from the way that the files are arranged that it simplifies programmatic deployment. It also makes it a bit harder for a human who is used to standard Hadoop deployments to figure out where everything is located.

And finally, I discovered a bug with one of the packaged software products, Oozie. One of the resource files, oozie-bundle-0.1.xsd contains an invalid regular expression on line 22. I haven't tracked down the behavior, but for some reason JDK 1.6.30 will parse that invalid regex, but JDK 1.7U2 will exit with errors. Naturally, I was running JDK 1.7U2, so it took me a little extra time to debug the problem.

Overall, I quite liked Cloudera's Manager. It's certainly one of the better cluster deployment products I've seen.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.