The Cloudera-Hortonworks $5.2bn merger analysed: Challenges, competition and opportunities

When Cloudera and Hortonworks, two of the biggest big data behemoths, first announced they were coming together in a $5.2 billion blockbuster merger in October, the questions were almost infinite. Yet the most important two seemed to be: why now? And what does the future hold? Now, after the transaction officially closed earlier this month, the answers can be a little more candid. Perhaps surprisingly, the new company admits the move came about as a result of feeling the heat from its traditional competitor base as well as the public cloud giants. t’s usually good if you know you’re under pressure to face up and admit it rather than endlessly be in denial. And it’s even better if, like Cloudera, you have a plan of action to resolve the situation.