Hadoop vendor Hortonworks Inc. announced the general availability of the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) version 2.3 at the Hadoop Summit yesterday, less than a month after it first unveiled the release.

At the time Hortonworks first showed of HDP 2.3, the company said the biggest update was it can now be automatically provisioned in any cloud environment. The update also makes HDP easier for enterprises to adopt and administer, and the platform has been given a number of security enhancements.

Hortonworks business model is to offer value add-ons around the main Apache Hadoop framework, with a focus on making it simple to deploy and manage securely across distributed clusters. As such, one big feature the company is touting in HDP 2.3 is the introduction of proactive cluster monitoring.

What’s new in HDP 2.3?

Hortonworks says its integrated a number of non-Hadoop open-source technologies into its distribution, focused on data governance and security. This development comes after Hortonworks teamed up with a number of tech companies to create a common enterprise Hadoop data governance framework, and one of the fruits of that effort is the introduction of Apache Atlas into HDP 2.3. Atlas is an open-source project focused on building governance services into HDP, featuring a scalable metadata service, integration with SQL metrics and the Hive metastore, plus a user interface to let admins easily search for metadata and lineage.

Another new feature is Cloudbreak, designed for automated provisioning of HDP clusters in any cloud environment. Cloudbreak was built from the technology Hortonworks gained through its recent acquisition SequenceIQ Inc.

Hortonworks has also added the SmartSense proactive monitoring service for its subscription customers. SmartSense works to provide insights and recommendations on cluster utilization and health, and ensures better long-range cluster resource utilization and capacity planning.

Additionally, the new release offers improved data protection thanks to the introduction of transparent data encryption and a new encryption key management store via Apache Ranger, which takes care of authorization and audit policies. Meanwhile, Apache Knox is responsible for authentication, with bi-directional SSL support and LDAP data caching for improved performance.

“Hortonworks remains focused on advancing security, governance and operations while making it easy for everyone to analyze massive volumes of data with Apache Hadoop,” said Tim Hall, vice president of product management at Hortonworks. “With HDP 2.3, Hortonworks is delivering the latest innovations from the open source community allowing our customers to unlock the value of their data in ways that simply weren’t possible before.”

HDP 2.3 is available now and can be downloaded directly from Hortonworks’ site. Alternatively, check out this page to learn more about the key technologies and capabilities Hortonworks has added to HDP 2.3.

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