Big data analytics has gained its significant momentum with Hadoop. It has become a staple for every big company dealing with big data computing. From its inception time, till 2017, within these ten years, Hadoop has evolved a lot. Hadoop version 3 has emerged with almost doubled storage capacity and many more features. No doubt, in the big data technology space, Hadoop has a bright future.
Apparently, it’s a pertaining question that what is the best Big Data Hadoop Certification in the market, Is Cloudera or Hortonworks better for Hadoop certification?
In this blog, we will highlight specific areas that may help you to take the decision which Hadoop certification is the best for you.
Note: If you’re preparing for the Hadoop interview, prepare well with the top Hadoop interview questions and get ready for your interview.
Area 1: Cloudera or Hortonworks as Hadoop Distribution
Market demands for Hadoop professionals who are specialized in particular Hadoop distribution. Most of the companies use either Cloudera or Hortonworks as a Hadoop distribution platform. Both have been built upon Apache Hadoop. Hence both Cloudera and Hortonworks have some similarities and differences as well.
Similarities between Cloudera and Hortonworks
- Both are Hadoop distributions for enterprise purposes.
- They are stable and secure distribution.
- Cloudera and Hadoop have an active community to help and troubleshoot problems.
- Both have robust training platform for professionals who want to excel as a certified Hadoop professional.
- Cloudera and Hortonworks both are based on a shared-nothing architecture.
- Distributions wise they are based on master-slave architecture.
- Both support MapReduce and YARN.
Differences between Cloudera and Hortonworks
Cloudera and Hortonworks both are based upon same Apache Hadoop. However, they have many differences.
- Cloudera is mostly for commercial purpose, and it possesses a commercial license. On the other hand, Hortonworks owns open source licenses. Hence their business growth strategy is entirely different.
- As Hortonworks distribution is open source, it is entirely free whereas Cloudera provides paid service. Though they offer a limited period free trial.
- Hortonworks and Cloudera follow two different technological strategies. For example, Hortonworks uses Ambari for management instead of any proprietary software. It prefers open source tools like Stinger and Apache Solr for data handling. On the other hand, Cloudera has their own Cloudera manager.
- Cloudera follows more aggressive business strategy as it follows the path of traditional software. However, Hortonworks relies on open source products that are somewhat sales oriented.
- Hortonworks distribution works on the windows server as a native component. On the other hand, Cloudera CDH can run on a windows server, but it is not a native component.
Area2: Know the Apt of Hadoop Distribution in the Industry
Both Cloudera and Hortonworks have their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, before finalizing the distribution, organizations should measure the following factors for both the distributions. This should be measured based on short and long-term goals:
- the performance
- scalability
- manageability
- reliability
- data access
Selecting the Hadoop distribution for business also depends on some organization specific parameters. For example:
- technical support
- expanded functionality
- system dependency
- flexibility
- cost
Cloudera or Hortonworks both are market leaders as Hadoop distributions vendors. Both the vendors are innovative and helping to grow big data arena. Though Cloudera is the older player in this niche with its paid components, Hortonworks is also catching up fastly.
However, it is finally the needs of an organization which is the primary decision factor in choosing Cloudera or Hortonworks for Hadoop distribution.
Preparing for Hortonworks certifications? Here is the complete preparation guide for HDPCA and HDPCD certifications!
Area 3: Cloudera or Hortonworks Which One Advances the Market?
It is a controversial question indeed! Considering the popularity of the market, no doubt Cloudera weighs more than Hortonworks. There are plenty of reasons which boast it to the market. Started two years before Hortonworks, its contribution to the Apache Hadoop project is truly commendable.
In addition to that, Cloudera Hadoop distribution is high profile and well accepted across the big data companies. Cloudera meets the need of enterprise applications and continuously upgrading in this area. Its recent launch Sentry is a significant step towards the data security concerns of organizations.
There is one more vital difference considering the distribution. This is related to the sub-projects of these distributions.
There is a significant difference regarding the installation and add-on tools for administration management.
Cloudera Management Suite includes
- enterprise-level features
- automated and tool -based Hadoop deployment capabilities
- configuration management with dashboards
- capacity and expansion planning using its resource management module
On the other hand, Hortonworks has Ambari similar to Cloudera Management Suite. However, Ambari is not as mature as Cloudera Management suite. Furthermore, it lacks lots of advanced cluster management features.
Cloudera or Hortonworks both comes with open source Apache Hadoop. However, Cloudera comes with vendor-lock management suite which helps in faster installation and deployment process. On the other hand, Hortonworks is 100% open source. As a result, Hortonworks updates come quicker than Cloudera.
Area 4: Scope of Hadoop Certifications by Cloudera and Hortonworks
Cloudera and Hortonworks both provide different levels of certifications which are altogether different regarding
- Area of expertise
- Distribution specific
- Exam pattern
- Complexity
- Cost
- Preparation
Here are the lists of Cloudera Hadoop certifications which are well recognized in the industry.
Cloudera Hadoop Certifications
1. Cloudera Spark and Hadoop Developer (CCA175): This certification focuses on executing Spark applications on Hadoop cluster. Along with it, the certification stresses upon Spark SQL query and Spark streaming process.
As a part of this certification preparation, developers will learn to write applications using core Spark and ETL processing along with iterative algorithms. Participants need to handle large data sets on real-time scenarios which help them to learn how to take a faster decision in time critical scenario.
Overall the certification covers the following operations on Cloudera enterprise platform.
- Data ingestion
- Data transformation, staging and storing
- Data analysis
- Application configuration
2. CCA Data Analyst (CCA 159): The core focus of the certification is data handling which involves
- Data preparation
- Unstructured data formatting
- Data analysis
The entire process involves tools like Sqoop, Pig, Hive, and Impala.Participants need to extensively use ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load), DDL(Data Definition Language) and QL(Query Language) operations to work on given set of unstructured data in live CDH cluster.
3. CCA Administrator (CCA-131): This certification focuses on installation, configuration and administration related aspects in Hadoop cluster using Cloudera Manager. Through this certification preparation, an aspiring Hadoop administrator will learn from installation, deployment to load balancing to every possible real-world challenge that a Hadoop administrator may face in CDH cluster.
All the above mentioned Cloudera certifications typically consist of 8-12 real time scenario based questions which you need to solve within 120 minutes. There is no partial marking for any questions. Furthermore, you need to execute in live CDH cluster for all scenarios. No doubt, these are one of the toughest certifications in IT industry.
Want to know about the Cloudera certification? Here is the complete information and prepartion guide for Cloudera Administrator Certification.
Hortonworks Certifications
1. HDP Certified Developer (HDPCD): The certification focuses on
- Data ingestion
- Data transformation
- Data analysis
The participant needs to answer multiple choice questions along with actual tasks on Hortonworks Data Platform 2.4 in an Ambari managed infrastructure. In addition to it, the tasks involve Sqoop, Hive, Pig, Flume tools.
2. HDP Certified Apache Spark Developer (HDPCD-Spark): This certification exam is for developers for developing Spark applications through Spark Core and Spark SQL using Scala or Python. The exam pattern is same as HDPCD.
3. HDP CERTIFIED JAVA DEVELOPER (HDPCD-Java): The certification is a specialized one for Java developers who will perform Hadoop related development.
Most of the Hadoop developers need extensive Java programming for Map Reduce jobs which are very specific to Hadoop related functions like creating
- Combiners
- Partitioners
- Custom keys
- Custom sorting
- Joining of datasets
4. HDP Certified Administrator (HDPCA): This is for competency in administrative jobs in Hadoop cluster like
- Installation
- Configuration
- Troubleshooting
- High Availability
- Security
5. Hortonworks Certified Associate (HCA): This is the basic level exam to get an overview of HDP technologies and business cases in Hadoop ecosystem. By attempting this exam, a participant will get a complete overview of following aspects of Hadoop.
- Data Access
- Data Governance and Workflow
- Operations
- Security
Here are the best books for Hortonworks certifications that will help you crack the Hortorworks certification exams!
Area 5: Which One is the Best Hadoop Certification for You?
As we have discussed on the difference between the two market leaders of Hadoop distribution, it is clear that Cloudera edges over the Hortonworks in many angles. However, that doesn’t make it a thumb rule that Cloudera is better for Hadoop certification always. Cloudera or Hortonworks the choice could be based on organizational demand and individual choice.
If you peek into job portals, the recruiters do not always specify the Hadoop distribution specific expertise. Hence, rather than stressing upon on the vendor, it is better to know which Hadoop certifications are leading the market.
CCA 175 Spark and Hadoop Developer, CCA 131, HDPCD, HDPCD-Spark, HDPCA are the most demanded certifications in the current Hadoop industry. If you compare CCA 175 Spark and Hadoop Developer with HDPCD, both have almost 50% overlap. Similarly, HDPCA and CCA131 are exceptional considering the particular Hadoop platforms.
Final Words
To conclude, Certified Hadoop Professionals always take an edge over other irrespective of the distribution. Hence, if you go for any of the popular certifications as mentioned above, you will get long-term benefit in the growing Hadoop industry.
Whizlabs has already pioneered Hadoop training industry with the most sought-after HDP certifications (HDPCD and HDPCA) as mentioned above. Along with its new venture in Cloudera distribution, they have launched CCA131. More certifications are in the process with unique and most up to date features.
- Top 45 Fresher Java Interview Questions - March 9, 2023
- 25 Free Practice Questions – GCP Certified Professional Cloud Architect - December 3, 2021
- 30 Free Questions – Google Cloud Certified Digital Leader Certification Exam - November 24, 2021
- 4 Types of Google Cloud Support Options for You - November 23, 2021
- APACHE STORM (2.2.0) – A Complete Guide - November 22, 2021
- Data Mining Vs Big Data – Find out the Best Differences - November 18, 2021
- Understanding MapReduce in Hadoop – Know how to get started - November 15, 2021
- What is Data Visualization? - October 22, 2021
Consider Cloud based big data certifications such as AWS Big Data Speciality Certification
Thank you very much ! You have cleared out the difference between them.