Tag: XA Secure

Hortonworks Announces Readiness Of YARN For Apache Spark

On Thursday, Hortonworks announced that Apache Spark is “YARN Ready” and compatible with the multiple workloads and additional CPU processing-demands specific to Spark applications. As a result of the compatibility of Apache Spark with YARN, Hadoop users can now use one Hadoop cluster with a single repository of data for a variety of purposes rather than having to segment workloads such that some data is dedicated to Apache Spark. More specifically, Hadoop users can now rest assured that YARN-based applications work collaboratively with applications that leverage Spark’s capabilities to facilitate real-time analytics, interactive analytics, machine learning and stream processing. Hortonworks introduced Apache Spark to the Hortonworks Data Platform as a technology preview download in May but today announces the integration of Spark with YARN, its recent acquisition, XA Secure, for authentication and data security purposes, as well as Ambari toward the larger goal of delivering an integrated, turnkey, enterprise-grade Hadoop platform. Thursday’s announcement by Hortonworks responds to similar statements by competitors MapR regarding the integration of Spark into its Hadoop distribution, and Cloudera’s announcement of its enterprise-grade support for Apache Spark.

The following graphic illustrating the integration of Spark into YARN originated from the Hortonworks blog post Making Apache Spark YARN Ready.

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Hortonworks Acquires XA Secure To Deliver Comprehensive Hadoop Security Solution

On Thursday, Hortonworks announced the acquisition of XA Secure, a company that delivers security solutions for Hadoop. XA Secure provides an integrated suite of Hadoop security solutions that addresses security concerns involving Administration, Authentication, Authorization, Audit and Data Protection as illustrated below:

Source: Hortonworks Blog and InformationWeek Hortonworks’ Security Buy

To date, Hortonworks has worked on security issues related to access control in HDFS, DBA-compatible grant or revoke functionality for Apache Hive and a single point of secure access to Hadoop clusters by means of Apache Knox. XA Secure provides an integrated security solution for Hadoop that centralizes security management, authenticates users, integrates access control policies, provides a comprehensive audit trail and protects data in motion and at rest. The XA Secure solution works with batch Hadoop solutions in addition to real-time Hadoop solutions and interactive SQL. True to its open-source roots, Hortonworks plans to enhance XA Secure and then return the results to the open source community by incubating a new project within the Apache Software Foundation in the latter half of 2014. Hortonworks will make XA Secure available to Hortonworks customers under the branding HDP Security in late June 2014. The decision by Hortonworks to purchase XA Secure with the intent of open-sourcing the technology once it has matured represents an astute play to carve out a leadership position in the rapidly evolving Hadoop security space by delivering one of the first turnkey Hadoop security solutions available today, Cloudera’s Apache Sentry admitted and notwithstanding. In the meantime, however, Hortonworks customers stand to enjoy enhanced security functionality as the XA Secure acquisition becomes progressively integrated into the Hortonworks Data Platform and experiences a slew of enhancements slotted into an aggressive product development timeline.