In a bid to expand the capabilities of its cloud platform, Google Inc. has acquired Cask Data Inc., a startup that builds tools for the Hadoop open-source analytics framework.

Cask founders Jonathan Gray and Nitin Motgi announced the news in a Monday blog post. They didn’t divulge the acquisition price, but said they’re joining Google’s cloud division along with their team. In their new roles, they are set to continue development work on the startup’s open-source Cask Data Application Platform.

CDAP is an abstraction layer for Hadoop that enables software teams to interact with notoriously complex framework via comparatively simple application programming interfaces. According to Cask, these APIs allow developers to build large-scale analytics services on top even if they possess limited knowledge of the underlying platform.

Abstracting away Hadoop’s complexities also has another benefit. Because CDAP-powered applications access the analytics framework through its APIs, they don’t have to be custom-fit for the specific Hadoop distribution a company is using. This gives organizations the freedom to move their analytics workloads from one distribution to another if their needs change.

Application portability was an equally big focus for Velostrata Inc., another startup that was recently acquired by Google. Velostrata has created a platform that lets companies migrate on-premise workloads to the cloud without having to make the time-consuming changes normally involved in the task.

In contrast, adding portability to Hadoop applications is just one aspect of Cask’s value proposition for CDAP. On top of its development APIs, the platform provides tools designed to help companies prepare their information for analysis, track how it’s used and build workflows for automating data management tasks.

CDAP is compatible with all major Hadoop distributions. Morever, the offering provides integrations with several of Google’s cloud services, which should make it somewhat easier for the technology giant to incorporate it into its portfolio.

Cask raised $37.5 million in venture capital from eight investors prior to the acquisition.

Gray spoke with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, back in 2016 about the company and its strategy:

Image: chris18769/Pixabay