title: Assessing and comparing Hadoop for Business Intelligence Design considerations
body: <p>I am considering various technologies for data warehousing and business intelligence, and have come upon this radical tool called Hadoop. Hadoop doesn't seem to be exactly built for BI purposes, but there are references of it having potential in this field. (  <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-explosion/hadoop-pitched-business-intelligence-488" rel="nofollow">http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-explosion/hadoop-pitched-business-intelligence-488</a>). </p>
  
  <p>However little information I have got from the internet, my gut tells me that hadoop can become a disruptive technology in the space of traditional BI solutions. There really is sparse information regarding this topic, and hence I wanted to gather all the Guru's thoughts here on the potential of Hadoop as a BI tool as compared to traditional backend BI infrastructure like <strong>Oracle Exadata, vertica etc</strong>. For starters, I would like to ask the following question - </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><strong>Design Considerations</strong> - How would designing a BI solution with Hadoop be different from traditional tools? I know it should be different, as I read one cannot create schemas in Hadoop. I also read that a major advantage will be the complete elimination of ETL tools for Hadoop (is this true?) Do we need Hadoop + pig + mahout to get a BI solution??</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Thanks &amp; Regards!</p>
  
  <p>Edit - Breaking down into multiple questions. Will start with the one i think most imp.</p>