This week is shaping up to be a big one for open source vendor Talend. On Oct. 23, the company introduced new Big Data profiling tools. A day later, it announced support for NoSQL databases in its Big Data products. Read on for details.

Talend made both of these developments public during the New York edition of the Strata conference. Talend has been busy at that event showcasing its efforts to “democratize Big Data,” in the words of Yves de Montcheuil, vice president of Marketing at the company.

When I spoke to Montcheuil earlier this week about the technological enhancements to Talend’s Big Data platforms — which include Talend Open Studio for Big Data and Talend Platform for Big Data — he emphasized the simplification of Hadoop deployments that the features make possible. With Talend, he said, “We don’t require you to learn those complex languages and techniques” to configure Big Data platforms, making Hadoop “enterprise-ready.”

NoSQL and Talend

While the first announcement was about new tools for ensuring the integrity and reliability of Big Data, the latest news concerns support for NoSQL databases in Talend’s products. Beginning with the release in November of Talend version 5.2, users will be able to integrate NoSQL data stores into their existing data infrastructures.

In addition, the company promises:

Talend isn’t the only big name in the world of Big Data to focus on NoSQL lately. MapR, a Talend partner, also recently announced new technology designed to improve NoSQL performance in Hadoop deployments.

These and other developments aimed at making it easier to use Hadoop and related technologies underline the key importance that user-friendly tools will play in ensuring the success of open source Big Data solutions. For most organizations without resident Hadoop gurus, Hadoop is only as useful as it is usable. That means value-added products such as Talend’s will play a major role in open source Big Data integration going forward.