Big data startup Hortonworks is now offering users a way to integrate its Hadoop platform with the BI applications they’re running on top.

Hortonworks Hive ODBC Driver 1.0 makes it possible to analyze and visualize data from  Excel, Microstrategy, PowerPivot, Tableau and other platforms directly from within Hadoop. This functionality has the potential of saving data scientists a lot of hassle in the long run.

The driver is based on the ODBC 3.52, one of the most popular versions of the platform-agnostic database connectivity API. It was created by a company called Simba, which claims its ODBC tech is used in over 30 million machines worldwide.

“A true pioneer in solving modern data management challenges for the enterprise, Hortonworks is providing the Apache Hadoop community and technology ecosystem with a full spectrum of tools to unleash the power of big data,” said George Chow, CTO at Simba Technologies, developer of the ODBC Driver.

“The Hortonworks Hive ODBC Driver combined with HDP provides business users with the convenience of aggregating, storing and analyzing data on one platform, to gain more comprehensive business insights in less time.”

The Hortonworks Big Data platform is pegged as a 100 percent open distribution of Hadoop. The new driver adds a lot of legitimacy to this claim, not to mention a slight edge over the competition.

The software is available for Windows and Linux environments starting immediately and will arrive to Mac OS X sometime later this month.

Hortonworks is getting serious about its growth. This update comes only a day after Herb Cunitz was appointed as the company’s president. Prior to joining the Yahoo spin-off he worked in an executive position at VMware, and now he’ll be in charge of driving Hortonworks’ global sales and expansion.