Hortonworks announces agreement with Avanade to deliver Big Data Solutions based on Microsoft technologies

PALO ALTO and SEATTLE—Oct. 13, 2014—Hortonworks, the leading contributor to and provider of enterprise Apache™ Hadoop®, today announced an alliance partnership with Avanade, a business technology, cloud and managed services provider, to build new big data solutions and services based on Microsoft technologies. Avanade’s data analytics deployments for enterprise clients with Windows Server and Microsoft Azure environments will turn to Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) on Windows and Azure HDInsight – Microsoft’s 100 percent Apache Hadoop-based service.

Hortonworks has had a strategic partnership with Microsoft since 2011 as part of its Hadoop strategy. An eight time winner of Microsoft alliance partner of the year award, Avanade offers market-leading Microsoft expertise with 22,000 professionals globally.

Commenting on the alliance partnership, John Kreisa, Hortonworks vice president of strategic marketing, said, “The deep relationships both organizations have with Microsoft make this a natural alliance. Avanade has unparalleled breadth and depth in their understanding and work on Microsoft technologies. They will undoubtedly bring increased awareness for Hadoop in the enterprise and with the Hortonworks Data Platform be able to offer their customers a modern data architecture that enables better decision-making.”

Avanade will include HDP in its portfolio of Data and Analytics professional services including its Data & Analytics Capability Assessment offerings. Avanade will also introduce new services to help its enterprise customers accelerate the adoption of Modern Data Warehouse leveraging Hadoop.

“As our customers engage on their digital journey, having the right solutions to leverage the volume and types of data being generated by the ‘Internet of Things’ is critical for achieving big benefits. Our alliance with Hortonworks based on Microsoft big data technology will help us empower our customers, realize results and drive business momentum in this area,” said Steve Palmer, senior vice president, Avanade Data & Analytics.

As part of the alliance and to meet the demand in the market, Avanade is investing in preparing its more than 2,300 Data and Analytics professionals to enable big data and analytics through HDP and Azure HDInsight. This investment illustrates both organizations’ dedication to growing ecosystems around Microsoft technologies.

“Both Avanade and Hortonworks are key partners for Microsoft in our efforts to help customers implement Hadoop projects,” said Eron Kelly, general manager, data platform at Microsoft. “We have worked with Hortonworks for the past few years to contribute back to the Hadoop community and bring Azure HDInsight and HDP for Windows to the enterprise market. We are pleased Avanade is now working with Hortonworks and will bring their customer-centric focus on delivering business value to customers’ big data Hadoop implementations.”

Hortonworks will be attending Strata Conference, October 15-17, at the Javits Center in New York City. Together with the Hadoop community, Hortonworks will participate in discussions regarding the various enterprise data applications and its rapidly growing partner ecosystem. Avanade and Hortonworks will be in booth 117 on Thursday, October 16 at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss how this alliance can drive real data dividends.