One of the mainstays of the late-2000s and early part of the current decade is the use of Big Data. Companies are using massive amounts of data to provide insight about how their operations work and what they can do to make them better.
The difficult part about using Big Data, the silos of information ranging from company revenue to marketing procedures, is not always the collection of that data. Instead, data storage and processing rise to the top, so while markets were beginning to adopt Big Data, software frameworks such as Apache Hadoop were created to help organize and make use all that information. The Hadoop framework manages data on the software level and makes sure that data is split between server cluster nodes for timely processing when access to those files are needed.
As with any similar architecture and collection of important business documents, security is paramount. For obvious reasons, it is not in the best interest for enterprises to collect terabytes of data and then leave them open for public access or even unsecured company employee access. Certain files carry higher permissions than others, so the complexity of keeping some people outside and allowing others inside can be difficult.
With Hadoop, it can be best for the entire system of Big Data collection, management, and processing to plan for data-centric security from the start. By focusing on individual pieces of data rather than entire systems, companies can provide each file or group of similar files with tags that either mark them as safe or unsafe regarding access by an individual. Each employee in the company, for instance, will necessarily have access to some files while to others he will not.
It is this idea of securing Hadoop from the beginning on which Hortonworks concentrated in its webinar recently. Officials from Voltage Security and Hortonworks were moderated by TMC (News - Alert)'s own Peter Bernstein.
Underscoring the talk is Hortonworks' activity within the field of security. Just last year it partnered with Knox Gateway (News - Alert) to provide a method of security for Hadoop. Indeed, Bernstein said in a post only a few weeks ago that Big Data processing could nearly meet the definition of “mission critical.” There is often no better time for companies to get started on security than in the present, and Hortonworks appears at the forefront of a mainstay that is changing the face of enterprises everywhere.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson