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Apache Hadoop vs Oracle Big Data Appliance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Hadoop
Ranking in Data Warehouse
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Big Data Appliance
Ranking in Data Warehouse
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Apache Hadoop is 5.1%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Big Data Appliance is 1.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Sushil Arya - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides ease of integration with the IT workflow of a business
When working with Kafka, I saw that the data came in an incremental order. The incremental data processing part is still not very effective in Apache Hadoop. If the data is already there, it can be processed very effectively, especially if the data is coming in every second. If you want to know the location of some data every second, then such data is not processed effectively in Apache Hadoop. I can say that one of the features where improvements are required revolves around the licensing cost of the tool. If the tool can build some licensing structures in a pay-per-use manner, organizations can get the look and feel of Apache Hadoop. Apache Hadoop can offer a licensing structure of the product that can be seen as similar to how AWS operates. Apache Hadoop can look into the capability of processing incremental data. The tool's setup process can be a scope of improvement. Also, it is not very simple because while doing the setup, we need to do all the server settings, including port listing and firewall configurations. If we look at other products on the market, then they can be made simpler. There are certain shortcomings when it comes to the product's technical support part, making it an area where improvements are required. The time frame for the resolution is an area that needs to be improved. The overall communication part of the technical support team also needs improvement.
Mohammed Hamad - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides clean, centralized data
From a technical perspective, Big Data Appliance could be improved with more innovation in the AI and machine-learning parts instead of relying on Cloudera. Oracle could also improve Big Data Appliance by having one technology on their stack and working on it instead of continually changing the name or technologies or features. In addition, they could have a program to enable their partners to use this technology because right now, I have to have an expert to use the AI elements.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We selected Apache Hadoop because it is not dependent on third-party vendors."
"What comes with the standard setup is what we mostly use, but Ambari is the most important."
"I liked that Apache Hadoop was powerful, had a lot of tools, and the fact that it was free and community-developed."
"The most valuable features are the ability to process the machine data at a high speed, and to add structure to our data so that we can generate relevant analytics."
"The ability to add multiple nodes without any restriction is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Hadoop is designed to be scalable, so I don't think that it has limitations in regards to scalability."
"The scalability of Apache Hadoop is very good."
"I recommend it for the telecom sector. I know it well, and it's a good fit."
"This is a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy."
"Because Big Data Appliance allows me to have a single source of truth, it means I have clean data that can be monetized and leveraged to gain more insights with real-time reports from the dashboard."
"The best thing about the product is that the end-user can build the reports by themselves without really knowing anything about databases."
 

Cons

"The solution needs a better tutorial. There are only documents available currently. There's a lot of YouTube videos available. However, in terms of learning, we didn't have great success trying to learn that way. There needs to be better self-paced learning."
"The integration with Apache Hadoop with lots of different techniques within your business can be a challenge."
"I would like to see more direct integration of visualization applications."
"In the next release, I would like to see Hive more responsive for smaller queries and to reduce the latency."
"What could be improved in Apache Hadoop is its user-friendliness. It's not that user-friendly, but maybe it's because I'm new to it. Sometimes it feels so tough to use, but it could be because of two aspects: one is my incompetency, for example, I don't know about all the features of Apache Hadoop, or maybe it's because of the limitations of the platform. For example, my team is maintaining the business glossary in Apache Atlas, but if you want to change any settings at the GUI level, an advanced level of coding or programming needs to be done in the back end, so it's not user-friendly."
"It would be good to have more advanced analytics tools."
"General installation/dependency issues were there, but were not a major, complex issue. While migrating data from MySQL to Hive, things are a little challenging, but we were able to get through that with support from forums and a little trial and error."
"It requires a great deal of learning curve to understand. The overall Hadoop ecosystem has a large number of sub-products. There is ZooKeeper, and there are a whole lot of other things that are connected. In many cases, their functionalities are overlapping, and for a newcomer or our clients, it is very difficult to decide which of them to buy and which of them they don't really need. They require a consulting organization for it, which is good for organizations such as ours because that's what we do, but it is not easy for the end customers to gain so much knowledge and optimally use it."
"From a technical perspective, Big Data Appliance could be improved with more innovation in the AI and machine-learning parts instead of relying on Cloudera."
"It seems like the deployment of repositories has become more difficult in later versions of the product rather than easier."
"The product should be simplified for the average user."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Apache Hadoop could be less expensive."
"The price could be better. Hortonworks no longer exists, and Cloudera killed the free version of Hadoop."
"The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level."
"​There are no licensing costs involved, hence money is saved on the software infrastructure​."
"Do take into consider that data storage and compute capacity scale differently and hence purchasing a "boxed" / 'all-in-one" solution (software and hardware) might not be the best idea."
"We just use the free version."
"It's reasonable, but there's room for improvement in cost-effectiveness."
"We don't directly pay for it. Our clients pay for it, and they usually don't complain about the price. So, it is probably acceptable."
"Oracle's prices are too high compared to others in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
34%
Computer Software Company
12%
University
5%
Energy/Utilities Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Hadoop?
It's primarily open source. You can handle huge data volumes and create your own views, workflows, and tables. I can also use it for real-time data streaming.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Hadoop?
The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level. While it might be free for students, organizations typically need to pay for their subscriptions. Th...
What needs improvement with Apache Hadoop?
The problem with Apache Hadoop arose when the guys that originally set it up left the firm, and the group that later owned it didn't have enough technical resources to properly maintain it. This wa...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon, Adobe, eBay, Facebook, Google, Hulu, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Spotify, AOL, Twitter, University of Maryland, Yahoo!, Cornell University Web Lab
Caixa Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Hadoop vs. Oracle Big Data Appliance and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.