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Apache Spark vs HPE Data Fabric comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Spark
Ranking in Hadoop
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (6th), Java Frameworks (2nd)
HPE Data Fabric
Ranking in Hadoop
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Hadoop category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 13.6%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Data Fabric is 10.5%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hadoop Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Spark13.6%
HPE Data Fabric10.5%
Other75.9%
Hadoop
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Hamid M. Hamid - PeerSpot reviewer
Data architect at Banking Sector
A stable and scalable tool that serves as a great database
The initial setup of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric is easy. I am not sure how long it took to deploy HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric, but I haven't heard about any disadvantages when it comes to the time taken for the deployment. I remember that one of our company's clients who had purchased the product never mentioned the product's setup phase being complex. One of the drawbacks with HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric stems from the fact that the product's upgrade was not straightforward, and it was a complex process since one of the teams in my company who deals with the tool found the upgrade part to be tough. The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. My company has two dedicated staff members to look after the deployment and maintenance phases of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Spark Streaming, Spark SQL and MLib in that order."
"Apache Spark can do large volume interactive data analysis."
"The fast performance is the most valuable aspect of the solution."
"AI libraries are the most valuable. They provide extensibility and usability. Spark has a lot of connectors, which is a very important and useful feature for AI. You need to connect a lot of points for AI, and you have to get data from those systems. Connectors are very wide in Spark. With a Spark cluster, you can get fast results, especially for AI."
"Spark Streaming's micro-batch mode helps improving performance."
"Spark, as a tool, is easy to work with as you can work with Python, Scala, and Java."
"Apache Spark is a framework, which allows one organization to perform business and data analytics, at a very low cost, as compared to Ab-Initio or Informatica."
"The product's deployment phase is easy."
"My first choice is MapR, as it is more adaptable to different contexts, and it could be customized in some way to fit the different needs, and this is my first choice and my first advice to people who ask me about this particular platform."
"Outside of human error, MapR is probably the most stable of the major releases."
"HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric can be accessed from any namespace globally as you would access it from a machine using an NFS."
"MapR is a great distribution, although I have limited experience with other distributors."
"My customers find the product cheaper compared to other solutions. The previous solution that we used did not have unified analytics like the runtime or the analog."
"Initial setup is rather straightforward thanks to detailed documentation covering all the bases."
"I highly recommend MapR."
"The model creation was very interesting, especially with the libraries provided by the platform."
 

Cons

"The graphical user interface (UI) could be a bit more clear. It's very hard to figure out the execution logs and understand how long it takes to send everything."
"When you first start using this solution, it is common to run into memory errors when you are dealing with large amounts of data."
"Stream processing needs to be developed more in Spark. I have used Flink previously. Flink is better than Spark at stream processing."
"From my perspective, the only thing that needs improvement is the interface, as it was not easily understandable."
"The setup I worked on was really complex."
"The Spark solution could improve in scheduling tasks and managing dependencies."
"It needs to be simpler to use the machine learning algorithms supported by Octave (example polynomial regressions, polynomial interpolation)."
"When you are working with large, complex tasks, the garbage collection process is slow and affects performance."
"Installations and setups are still a bit cryptic and can be improved."
"It would be nice to have new developments in the Apache space (Spark, Storm, etc.)."
"The product is not user-friendly."
"The UI for administration still has a lot of manual work to set up the cluster and get it running."
"The interface part, what I'm calling the integration part, could be improved."
"Upgrading Ezmeral to a new version is a pain. They're trying to make the solution more container-friendly, so I think they're going in the right direction. The only problem we've had in the past was the upgrades. The process isn't smooth due to how the Red Hat operating system upgrades currently work."
"Having the ability to extend the services provided by the platform to an API architecture, a micro-services architecture, could be very helpful."
"The deployment could be faster. I want more support for the data lake in the next release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive, considering the setup."
"It is an open-source platform. We do not pay for its subscription."
"Apache Spark is an open-source tool."
"Apache Spark is not too cheap. You have to pay for hardware and Cloudera licenses. Of course, there is a solution with open source without Cloudera."
"Considering the product version used in my company, I feel that the tool is not costly since the product is available for free."
"They provide an open-source license for the on-premise version."
"Apache Spark is an expensive solution."
"The tool is an open-source product. If you're using the open-source Apache Spark, no fees are involved at any time. Charges only come into play when using it with other services like Databricks."
"The tool's price is cheap and based on a usage basis. The solution's licensing costs are yearly and there are no extra costs."
"There is a need for my company to pay for the licensing costs of the solution."
"HPE is flexible with you if you are an existing customer. They offer different models that might be beneficial for your organization. It all depends on how you negotiate."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
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Also Known As

No data available
MapR, MapR Data Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Valence Health, Goodgame Studios, Pico, Terbium Labs, sovrn, Harte Hanks, Quantium, Razorsight, Novartis, Experian, Dentsu ix, Pontis Transitions, DataSong, Return Path, RAPP, HP
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark vs. HPE Data Fabric and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.