MapR is considered as one of the three main vendors of the Hadoop open-source data software. In order to put itself ahead of the competition, MapR recently announced the new MapR Streams product. It is likened to the Apache Kafka which is a type of publish-subscribe messaging system.
MapR cofounder and chief executive John Schroeder told Venture Beat, "Performance is basically very similar to Kafka."
Despite its many similarities, MapR Streams have a few differences to Kafka. MapR Streams does not require a second cluster of servers alongside Hadoop. Unlike Kafka, MapR Streams is not going to be marketed under and open-source license.
MapR Streams allow users to share data source with other users that need that same data. Sharing data on MapR Streams is based on a subscription-style model. According to Tech Crunch, the IT division of a certain company can subscribe to a data stream that provides log information regarding anomalies that could trigger maintenance issues or security breaches.
One interesting aspect of MapR Streams' services is that it can function as a sort of recording system. It can create persistent records that users can rewind and review in order to get to the bottom of a problem.
MapR also announced that the Streams service has a converged platform that allows it to process multiple kinds of data like databases, files analytics. The platform takes advantage not only of Hadoop but also of Apache Spark, which is an open source big data and analytics platform.
MapR was established in 2009 and since then has grown into multi-million dollar enterprise. In a funding round in June 2014, the company was able to raise $80 million in private equity.