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Apache Spark vs HPE Data Fabric comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Spark
Ranking in Hadoop
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Compute Service (6th), Java Frameworks (2nd)
HPE Data Fabric
Ranking in Hadoop
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Hadoop category, the mindshare of Apache Spark is 14.2%, down from 19.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Data Fabric is 9.8%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hadoop Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Spark14.2%
HPE Data Fabric9.8%
Other76.0%
Hadoop
 

Featured Reviews

Devindra Weerasooriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at Devtech
Provides a consistent framework for building data integration and access solutions with reliable performance
The in-memory computation feature is certainly helpful for my processing tasks. It is helpful because while using structures that could be held in memory rather than stored during the period of computation, I go for the in-memory option, though there are limitations related to holding it in memory that need to be addressed, but I have a preference for in-memory computation. The solution is beneficial in that it provides a base-level long-held understanding of the framework that is not variant day by day, which is very helpful in my prototyping activity as an architect trying to assess Apache Spark, Great Expectations, and Vault-based solutions versus those proposed by clients like TIBCO or Informatica.
Hamid M. Hamid - PeerSpot reviewer
Data architect at Banking Sector
A stable and scalable tool that serves as a great database
The initial setup of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric is easy. I am not sure how long it took to deploy HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric, but I haven't heard about any disadvantages when it comes to the time taken for the deployment. I remember that one of our company's clients who had purchased the product never mentioned the product's setup phase being complex. One of the drawbacks with HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric stems from the fact that the product's upgrade was not straightforward, and it was a complex process since one of the teams in my company who deals with the tool found the upgrade part to be tough. The solution is deployed on an on-premises model. My company has two dedicated staff members to look after the deployment and maintenance phases of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a better MR, supports streaming and micro-batch, and supports Spark ML and Spark SQL."
"Overall, it offers everything that I can imagine right now."
"The best features in Apache Spark that I appreciate are the fast database access, the data transformation, and the data exchange."
"The processing time is very much improved over the data warehouse solution that we were using."
"I feel the streaming is its best feature."
"Spark replaced other costly products, reducing costs by thirty-eight percent."
"The data processing framework is good."
"The good performance. The nice graphical management console. The long list of ML algorithms."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The model creation was very interesting, especially with the libraries provided by the platform."
"The fact that the heavy computation is required on Big Data can be distributed across many nodes in a cluster, makes this solution a winner."
"Initial setup is rather straightforward thanks to detailed documentation covering all the bases."
"My first choice is MapR, as it is more adaptable to different contexts, and it could be customized in some way to fit the different needs, and this is my first choice and my first advice to people who ask me about this particular platform."
"HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric can be accessed from any namespace globally as you would access it from a machine using an NFS."
"My customers find the product cheaper compared to other solutions. The previous solution that we used did not have unified analytics like the runtime or the analog."
"I highly recommend MapR."
 

Cons

"There is complexity when it comes to understanding the whole ecosystem, especially for beginners."
"Apache Spark is very difficult to use. It would require a data engineer."
"The initial setup was not easy."
"Sometimes it is a nightmare on Linux trying to figure out what happened on the configuration and back-end."
"When you want to extract data from your HDFS and other sources then it is kind of tricky because you have to connect with those sources."
"The migration of data between different versions could be improved."
"I would like to see integration with data science platforms to optimize the processing capability for these tasks."
"When using Spark, users may need to write their own parallelization logic, which requires additional effort and expertise."
"It would be nice to have new developments in the Apache space (Spark, Storm, etc.)."
"The UI for administration still has a lot of manual work to set up the cluster and get it running."
"The deployment could be faster. I want more support for the data lake in the next release."
"The interface part, what I'm calling the integration part, could be improved."
"The biggest drawback is that it has vendor locking."
"One weakness for MapR is the Kerberos support."
"I'd say we've had issues with pricing."
"Upgrading Ezmeral to a new version is a pain. They're trying to make the solution more container-friendly, so I think they're going in the right direction. The only problem we've had in the past was the upgrades. The process isn't smooth due to how the Red Hat operating system upgrades currently work."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Considering the product version used in my company, I feel that the tool is not costly since the product is available for free."
"Apache Spark is an open-source solution, and there is no cost involved in deploying the solution on-premises."
"They provide an open-source license for the on-premise version."
"Apache Spark is an open-source tool."
"Since we are using the Apache Spark version, not the data bricks version, it is an Apache license version, the support and resolution of the bug are actually late or delayed. The Apache license is free."
"The product is expensive, considering the setup."
"The tool is an open-source product. If you're using the open-source Apache Spark, no fees are involved at any time. Charges only come into play when using it with other services like Databricks."
"Apache Spark is open-source. You have to pay only when you use any bundled product, such as Cloudera."
"HPE is flexible with you if you are an existing customer. They offer different models that might be beneficial for your organization. It all depends on how you negotiate."
"There is a need for my company to pay for the licensing costs of the solution."
"The tool's price is cheap and based on a usage basis. The solution's licensing costs are yearly and there are no extra costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Healthcare Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Spark?
Apache Spark is open-source, so it doesn't incur any charges.
What needs improvement with Apache Spark?
I find that there really lacks the technical depth to do any recommendations for future updates of Apache Spark. I used it for two years for our prototype work and testing things, but because I had...
What is your primary use case for Apache Spark?
I attempted to use Apache Spark in one of our customer projects, but after the initial test, our customer moved to another technology and another database system. I do not have any final remarks on...
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Also Known As

No data available
MapR, MapR Data Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA JPL, UC Berkeley AMPLab, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, UC Santa Cruz, TripAdvisor, Taboola, Agile Lab, Art.com, Baidu, Alibaba Taobao, EURECOM, Hitachi Solutions
Valence Health, Goodgame Studios, Pico, Terbium Labs, sovrn, Harte Hanks, Quantium, Razorsight, Novartis, Experian, Dentsu ix, Pontis Transitions, DataSong, Return Path, RAPP, HP
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Spark vs. HPE Data Fabric and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.