The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), has announced that the Apache Drill, a schema-free SQL query engine which delivers real-time insights, as a Top Level Project (TLP). Being upgraded to the TLP, Drill will have the autonomy at the Apache Software Foundation to make its own decisions, operating on a dedicated platform - drill.apache.org, moving out from its ealier domain - incubator.apache.org/drill.
The open source Apache Drill enables writing SQL queries on data stored in Hadoop, removing the constraint of building and maintaining schemas before data can be analyzed, supporting rapid application development and analytics on Apache Hadoop.
Apache Drill, a Apache License v2.0 project which was first announced in August 2012, provides users the ability to run interactive ANSI SQL queries on complex or constantly evolving data including JSON, Parquet, and HBase without ever worrying about schema definitions. The project receives code contributions from individual committers representing MapR, LinkedIn, Hortonworks, Pentaho, and Cisco, among others.
According to ASF, Drill reduces the burden on IT developers and administrators who prepare and maintain datasets for analysis. Analysts can explore data in real-time, pull in new datasets on the fly, and also use traditional BI tools to visualize the data easily by themselves, added ASF.
Jacques Nadeau, Vice President of Apache Drill
Apache Drill's graduation is a testament to the maturity of the technology and a strong indicator of the active community that develops and supports it. Drill's vibrant community ensures that it will continue to evolve to meet the demands of self-service data exploration use cases.
Tomer Shiran, member of the Apache Drill Project Management Committee
We see the Apache Top-Level Project status as a major milestone for Drill. With a growing user base and diverse community interest, we are excited that Drill will indeed be a game changer for Hadoop application developers and BI analysts alike.
