Marketing Research and Insight Glossary

Definitions, common uses and explanations of 1,500+ key market research terms and phrases.

What is Hadoop?

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Hadoop Definition

A free open-source, Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of large data sets in a distributed computing environment. It is part of the Apache project sponsored by the Apache Software Foundation.

Hadoop is a free open-source, Java-based computer programming framework that supports the processing and analysis of large datasets in a distributed computing environment. It is part of the Apache project, sponsored by the Apache Software Foundation. In marketing research, Hadoop can manage and analyze vast amounts of marketing-related data, such as customer behavior, social media interactions and campaign performance. Its ability to handle diverse data types and scale horizontally makes it suitable for the complex and data-intensive nature of marketing research tasks. That enables marketing professionals to work with diverse data sources, including structured and unstructured data, at a rate and scale that traditional databases may struggle to manage. In addition, the program may uncover hidden patterns and trends that benefit planning and product development.

Who relies on Hadoop?

Hadoop is a legacy backbone in many organizations, but new projects are more likely to use cloud-based echosystems. Organizations with massive data sets, such as e-commerce companies, social media platforms and digital marketing agencies, rely on Hadoop to process, store and analyze data. This technology also enables users to uncover patterns, trends and correlations that could impact marketing strategies.

Why should I care about Hadoop?

Hadoop pioneered large-scale analysis of behavioral data, laying the groundwork for how researchers integrate surveys with real-world digital footprints today. In the 2010s, it drove big data analytics, fueling ad targeting, clickstream and social insights.