Big Data management received a shot in the arm today, as BMC announced it’s joining Hadoop software and services firm Hortonworks’ technology partner program to integrate its Hadoop workflows for the enterprise.

The partnership means that Hortonworks’ Hadoop software gains direct access to Control-M for Hadoop, BMC’s big data management framework. Control-M for Hadoop has been purpose built to work with Hortonworks Hadoop software, and provides automation capabilities for batch processing of large data sets. It servers to remove the hassle of many aspects of Big Data management by applying intelligent monitoring and predictive analytics to Hadoop applications, helping to detect slowdowns and failures that could hinder performance.

Aside from this, BMC claims that Control-M for Hadoop can help IT pros to implement Hadoop applications faster through the automation of batch workflow creation and management. In addition, it can also accelerate the integration of other enterprise application workflows such as Pig, Scoop, Hive, and MapReduce, said BMC.

“IT pros tasked with maintaining overall system performance shouldn’t be expected to manage Hadoop as a separate environment from the rest of the IT infrastructure or be required to learn a large number of new skills,” said Wikibon analyst Jeff kelly.

“BMC Control-M for Hadoop allows IT pros familiar with BMC’s workload automation software to use their existing skills to automate batch workloads in Hadoop and manage Hadoop performance.”

BMC’s partnership with Hortonworks should help it to strengthen its foothold in the Big Data space. BMC views Big Data analysis as a foundational service of a concept it calls “New IT”, which refers to modern technologies that enable digital services delivery and drive enterprise productivity. And it’s not alone in that thinking – a recent report from Wikibon predicts that Big Data will become an $28 billion industry by the end of this year, growing to some $50 billion by 2017.

As part of this new spirit of cooperation between the two companies, BMC Control-M will also add support the HortonworkData Platform, effective immediately. Meanwhile, the two firms further announced plans to collaborate on the delivery of new Big Data management products and services.