Is there any better example of the need for reliable “real-time data in motion” technology than a moving car? Automobiles today are computers on wheels, generating critical data such as geo-location and speed, in addition to information from multiple embedded devices and communicating it all back to the cloud.

At the center of this real-time technology are a set of players that includes Hortonworks Inc., whose Data Flow platform, known as HDF, is becoming a key component not just for today’s cars, but for the retail space as well. The company is seeing interest among retailers in its technology as the focus shifts increasingly from a post-transactional to a pre-transactional world.

“This notion of real-time is really important because it helps the enterprise connect with the customer at the point of action and provide value right away,” said Arun Murthy (pictured), co-founder and chief product officer at Hortonworks. “Enterprises want to make sure they get insights from data. They don’t want you to abandon your shopping cart.”

Murthy stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host John Furrier (@furrier) during the BigData NYC event in New York City. They discussed how acquisitions and partnerships are furthering the company’s goals and the importance of contributing in the open-source community. (* Disclosure below.)

Onyara acquisition set the stage

Hortonworks is building its position in the “data in motion” space through a set of well-timed acquisitions and partnerships. The HDF platform became a part of its product set when the company purchased Onyara Inc. in 2015. Onyara’s Data Flow technology sprang from a need to manage unstructured data from connected devices at the edge.

“They were just a bunch of geeks like us,” Murthy recalled. “Our philosophy has been simple. More eyes and more hands are better than fewer.”

In keeping with that approach, Hortonworks has also recently partnered with IBM in an effort to better manage all of the real-time data being stored in multiple data lakes across the enterprise. The cloud-based DataPlane Service, announced just a few days ago, is designed to provide an easier way to manage and govern data regardless of where it sits.

“That announcement is a reflection of the fact that we’ve been very community driven, very ecosystem driven,” Murthy said.

Tools like HDF emerged from initiatives that ultimately made their way into the open-source community. The company has been mindful of the strength of that community as it looks to extend its presence in the data management arena. “The community is defined by the people who contribute,” Murthy said. “GitHub is a resume now; it’s not a Word doc.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of BigData NYC 2017. (* Disclosure: Hortonworks Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Hortonworks nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE