Ignition, Accel, Greylock Put $40M In Apache Hadoop Distribution Platform Cloudera

Cloudera, the startup that commercially distributes and services Apache Hadoop based data management software and services, has raised $40 million in new funding led by Ignition Partners, Greylock, Accel, Meritech Capital Partners, and In-Q-Tel. Cloudera previously raised $36 million from Accel Partners, Diane Greene, Qi Lu, Jeff Weiner, Marten Mickos, Gideon Yu, Caterina Fake, Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, and In-Q-Tel. The startup actually just raised $25 million last Fall.

Hadoop is a Java software framework born out of an open-source implementation of Google’s published computing infrastructure which is fostered within the Apache Software Foundation. Hadoop supports distributed applications running on large clusters of commodity computers processing enormous amounts of data. Cloudera helps distribute Hadoop, and provides practical services around the technology, similar to what Red Hat does for the Linux framework.

Cloudera has steadily launched a number of applications around its technology including Cloudera Enterprise, which includes authorization management and provisioning, integration configuration and monitoring and resource management.

The startup also rolled out Desktop Management platform that allows for copying and browsing the data files stored on a cluster; creating, running and saving jobs for later reuse or customization; and helps monitor the health of a Hadoop cluster and alerting operators in case of problems.

Mike Olson, CEO of Cloudera, says of the funding round, “This investment validates the success and innovation that Cloudera has achieved to date and the enormous market opportunity for Big Data managed by Hadoop…We are confident that by working closely together, we will continue to accelerate Cloudera’s leadership in the space and deliver game-changing technology. We are excited to have an experienced team of investors that have actually built and rolled out world class software platforms as our trusted advisors.”

More recently, Cloudera has created a strong foothold in the enterprise as Hadoop becomes the defacto technology to manage large amounts of data. Hadoop is currently used by most of the giants in the space including Google, Yahoo, Facebook (we wrote about Facebook’s use of Cloudera here), Amazon, AOL, Baidu and more.

Ignition Partner Frank Artale says of the investment: “The Big Data space is moving fast – we looked at many investment opportunities and chose Cloudera due to their clear leadership.”

The company recently launched a comprehensive partner program recently for the companies that use its services. And in June, Cloudera debuted a new version of its service, Cloudera Enterprise 3.5 and released Cloudera SCM Express, which makes it fast and easy for anyone to install and configure a complete Apache Hadoop-based stack

Last year,Olson told GigaOm that the company could have the legs for an IPO down the line. It’s unclear if that will happen, but certainly it appears that the company has been able to make a business out of commercializing an open source framework.

The new funding will be used towards sales and marketing efforts and towards strategic partnerships and initiatives.