MapR released the latest version of the MapR Distribution for Apache Hadoop, introducing a number of significance enhancements.

“MapR Distribution Version 1.2 vastly expands the selection of developed and deployed applications,” said Jack Norris, vice president of marketing, MapR Technologies. “These applications will also benefit from MapR’s continued innovations providing high availability, dependability and increased performance.”

First off, the update extended HDFS’s language support beyond Java to include C/C++  apps, and developers don’t have to make modifications to their software thanks to the fact it makes use of original  header file.

MapR is looking to open up its distribution to more potential customers, which is why v1.2 features a couple more changes along that agenda. Users can now leverage an installer to run their Hadoop apps on Windows and Mac, and have the opportunity to give the distro a test run via the freely available MapR Virtual Machine.

In addition, the update introduces support for MapReduce 2.0, the rewritten version of the resource management framework released with version 0.23.0 of Hadoop in November. Alongside MapReduce 2.0 the MapR Distribution features the v0.90.4 of HBase and upgraded versions of Hive and Pig.

The Hadoop ecosystem is constantly growing, and the open-source tools that enhance the core platform’s capabilities are a big part of that. Late last month ZooKeeper 3.4 launched, in the same timeframe Dell decided to get more involved with the community. The company open-sourced the Hadoop plugin for Crowbar, an open deployment tool originally developed for OpenStack.

MapR also got itself more involved in the Hadoop ecosystem by introducing a training program called the MapR Academy. It includes a series of online videos that dig into the various technical elements of Hadoop and provide information for IT professionals that want to get to know the platform.