Mostly HUE, Impala, Sqoop, and Hive. The impala-shell command is number one.
Data/Big Data Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
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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 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.
Director of Data Architecture at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
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.
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.
Buyer's Guide
Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop
February 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Lead Instructor at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
It has fairly matured tools like Cloudera Navigator and Cloudera Manager, but 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 Solutions Considered:
Cloudera is a leader in providing distributions for Hadoop so it was no brainer for us to decide.
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.
Senior Analyst - Strategy Analytics at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We were able to utilize data which was untapped previously, but the documentation on Hive could be more standardized.
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.
Software Design Engineer at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees
It automates the installation and configuration of Hadoop, but it should not provide generic logs for failed installations.
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.
Lead Bigdata Developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We used it to build an enterprise data hub, but Apache Kudu needs improvement.
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.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
It provides the ability to update configuration through the UI. I think licensing by size of data managed would be a useful improvement.
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 Solutions Considered
We compared it to Amazon EMR but found Cloudera Manager to be more functional.
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.
System Engineer at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
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.
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.
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Updated: February 2026
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