Channel technologies, Channel partner programs

Hortonworks Earnings: A Red Flag for Big Data Channel Partners?

Emerging channel partners in the big data and Hadoop ecosystem received a painful reality check today when Hortonworks (HDP) revealed Q2 2016 revenue results that were far short of analyst expectations. The company's stock is down about 25 percent on the news.

Hortonworks' Q2 revenues were $43.6 million, up 46 percent compared to Q2 2015. But that wasn't enough to impress Wall Street -- which expected closer to $45.3 million for the quarter, notes BusinessInsider. Hortonworks blamed the miss on several customer contracts that didn't close during the quarter. Also of note: Hortonworks President Herb Cunitz is departing the company.

Hortonworks competes against Cloudera and MapR in the Hadoop and big data software market. All three companies have growing channel partner programs. It's unclear if Hortonworks' problems are isolated to its own business -- or if the company's slower-than-expected growth is a sign of larger problems in the Hadoop market.

In recent months, MapR in particular has emphasized a push beyond Hadoop -- while also insisting that it had a better business model than that of Hortonworks.

Despite Hortonworks' earnings miss, the company pointed to progress on the partner front. For instance, the company in June unveiled an expanded Partnerworks program that now supports MSPs, ISVs and hardware partners.

ChannelE2E is gathering additional information from Hortonworks' earnings call and may update this story accordingly.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.