Are the Data Wars Over? Cloudera Thinks So.

The old data battle lines are starting to look as outdated as dial-up internet. Enterprises are grappling with the reality of data scattered across environments, desperate for a way to unify their sprawling digital kingdoms.

But Cloudera declared those battles over at its EVOLVE24 New York conference. Cloud or on-premises? Data lake or warehouse? Cloudera’s answer: Both.

Cloudera, long a data management heavyweight, unveiled a platform that's not just hybrid but truly hybrid. Imagine a single, unified system that spans your entire data universe — from the dusty servers in your basement to the shiniest new cloud instances. Data flows freely, workloads shift on demand, and AI algorithms crunch numbers wherever it's fastest and cheapest.

“We reinforce our commitment to delivering a true hybrid experience for major brands globally," says Remus Lim, senior vice president of Asia Pacific and Japan at Cloudera. “Our unified platform breaks down the barriers between cloud and on-premises environments, enabling enterprises to bring GenAI models to their data wherever it lives.”

Why is this a big deal?

It is because the old way of doing things was holding us back. Siloed data means missed insights, clunky processes, and sky-high costs. According to data from Cloudera, 93% of data leaders agree that “multi-cloud/hybrid capabilities for data and analytics are key for an organization to adapt to change.” With Cloudera's hybrid approach, you can finally have a:

• Unified Platform: A single, consistent experience across all environments, blurring the lines between cloud and on-premises.
• Hybrid Control Plane: Manage everything from a single dashboard, optimizing your data operations on the fly.
• Open Data Lakehouse: The best of both worlds — a data lake's flexibility and a data warehouse's performance, all in a hybrid package.
• Unified Security and Governance: Keep your data safe and compliant, no matter where it resides.
• Federated Data Access: Seamlessly access and analyze data across your entire hybrid infrastructure.
• Graviton (ARM) Support: Deploy Cloudera on the latest ARM-based systems for greater flexibility and portability.

This isn't just about convenience. It's about survival. In a world of constant disruption, businesses need the agility to adapt and innovate. That starts with a data strategy that is as flexible as it is.

As Andrew Brust, founder and chief executive officer of Blue Badge Insights, puts it: “Meaningful results demand a ‘true’ hybrid cloud approach to data management, where data and analytics assets running on-premises and in multiple clouds are managed together and federated into a logical whole.”

He emphasizes that true hybrid is more than just deploying to different places; it's about enabling seamless movement of data and analytics between them to optimize for changing needs, and he claims that Cloudera is the only vendor in the market to do so.

Bottom line

Cloudera's audacious push for a truly hybrid data future promises to liberate businesses from the constraints of outdated infrastructure models, unlocking the full potential of their data, wherever it may be.

“As more enterprises prepare for an increasingly hybrid world, they’ll need a flexible, scalable, data analytics and AI framework,” says Dipto Chakravarty, chief product officer at Cloudera. “This marks a pivotal moment for Cloudera as we continue to invest heavily into supporting enterprises on their true hybrid journeys.”

Whatever customers do next, it’s evident that the future of data is hybrid, and Cloudera just threw down its gauntlet.

Image credit: iStockphoto/SteveAllenPhoto