Databricks Unveils Cloud Platform for Apache Spark Analytics

It's been a big week so far for Big Data vendor Databricks, which has unveiled a new cloud-based data analytics platform for open source Apache Spark, while also announcing $33 million in series B financing.

The new platform, called Databricks Cloud, extends the powers of Spark, the cluster-computing platform for data analytics, to the cloud. The company is hoping the solution will attract customers searching for a turnkey data analytics platform that provides the power of cluster computing without the complexity of maintaining a cluster on site.

"Getting the full value out of their Big Data investments is still very difficult for organizations. Clusters are difficult to set up and manage, and extracting value from your data requires you to integrate a hodgepodge of disparate tools, which are themselves hard to use," said Ion Stoica, CEO of Databricks. "Our vision at Databricks is to dramatically simplify Big Data processing and free users to focus on turning data into value."

In addition to the data anlaytics functionality provided by the core Spark platform, Databricks Cloud supports third-party Spark applications. The company also emphasizes that the Spark platform on which Databricks Cloud is based is fully open source, eliminating concerns related to vendor lock-in or software incompatibility.

Databricks announced the Spark cloud platform, which is currently in limited availability among a set of beta users, with a waiting list available for organizations interested in gaining access to the offering, on June 30. The same day, the company revealed that it had secured $33 million in a series B financing round led by NEA with follow-on investment from Andreessen Horowitz.