For the second year in a row, Cloudera has been named a Leader in the GigaOm Radar for Streaming Data Platforms report. The 2025 edition of the report evaluated the top 17 streaming data platforms in the market against various functional and non-functional criteria. Cloudera was recognized for delivering a well-rounded solution in all fundamental aspects of streaming data management.
Cloudera’s Key Differentiators in the GigaOm Radar for Streaming Data Platforms Report
GigaOm highlighted the following as Cloudera’s strengths in the streaming data market:
Enabling a Wide Range of Real-Time Applications
Cloudera brings together Apache NiFi, Apache Kafka, and Apache Flink—the de facto standards in data streaming—to support a broad array of real-time applications, including data product creation, multi-cloud data movement, and AI/ML pipelines.
Providing Advanced Analytics For Immediate Insights
The ability to process large amounts of data in real-time is paramount for our customers. We make this possible, scalable and easy. With Cloudera SQL Stream Builder, users can create real-time pipelines using SQL to perform advanced analytics and streaming data processing.
Accelerating Generative AI (GenAI) Applications
Cloudera AI makes it fast and easy to get data into and out of AI models by supporting native integration for AI use cases—for example, integration with vector databases like Pinecone, Milvus, and Qdrant via exclusive NiFi processors for rapid processing and embedding of data. Cloudera provides seamless data flow from ingestion to production AI, supporting advanced use cases in data science and AI.
Real-time analytics and AI-driven applications are a necessity in today's business use cases. Cloudera's streaming data platform is well-positioned to provide customers with the streaming capabilities they need to build GenAI pipelines and workloads, create and update models in real time, and perform fast and scalable analytics on the streaming data using features like SQL Stream Builder, multi-cloud pipelines, and vector DB connectivity.
Enabling Cost-Effective and Scalable Data Storage with Apache Iceberg
Most streaming data is eventually stored at rest. Due to regulatory or business requirements, this data may have to be retained for several years, amounting to several petabytes of data. Apache Iceberg offers a low-cost and scalable storage solution for streaming data—ideal for stream enrichment and long-term data access.
Data lakehouses are at the core of enterprise modern architectures. Cloudera is one of the major contributors to Apache Iceberg, which powers our own data lakehouse. Any streaming solutions that exist in such architectures must effectively integrate with the data lakehouse, providing a low-cost and efficient streaming data storage and enrichment solution. Cloudera provides this integration natively, supporting it through NiFi, Flink and Kafka integrations with Apache Iceberg.
Unlocking True Flexibility by Running Real-Time Data On-Premises or Across Any Cloud
Cloudera offers unparalleled support for a fully integrated, open-source-aligned, data-in-motion stack. We’re the only vendor offering a seamless experience across Apache NiFi for diverse data ingestion, Apache Kafka for scalable event streaming, and Apache Flink for powerful real-time processing. This unique combination empowers enterprises to build robust, real-time data pipelines that span on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments.
At Cloudera, we treat data in motion as a first-class citizen in our platform because we believe the ability to move and process data in real time is key to success for any data-driven organization. We blend open-source innovation with enterprise-ready tools to give our customers the best of both worlds—the continuous innovation of the open source community backed by enterprise-scale support and customer service. By doing so, Cloudera delivers real-time data movement and processing you can trust.
Streaming capabilities are usually part of larger business use cases and are required to integrate with other types of technologies (for example, data lakehouses, AI inference, and data engineering tools). We recognize the importance of using streaming technologies as part of a larger ecosystem and deliver an integrated experience that enables customers to implement various types of business applications and use cases quickly and easily.
Read the Report
Read GigaOm’s analysis of the vendors that excel in the streaming data platform space and how they stack up to each other. You’ll see for yourself why Cloudera’s comprehensive, enterprise-ready streaming solution is positioned as a Leader and Fast Mover.
The report also provides details about:
The diverse vendor landscape: Learn about the broad range of vendors from niche specialists to full-stack cloud providers like Cloudera
Real-time processing: Get an understanding of the vendors who perform well at providing real-time processing, analytics, and machine learning integration
Strategic fit and integration: See why it’s important to consider alignment of platform capabilities with infrastructure, scalability, and enterprise toolchains when comparing solutions.
