The Total Economic Impact™ Of Cloudera On Private Cloud

Cost Savings With Modern Architecture

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that because of Cloudera on Private Cloud, their organizations could plan for less capacity and ultimately saved significant infrastructure costs. The organizations ultimately needed far fewer compute and storage nodes, and interviewees pointed to several Cloudera capabilities that enabled this, including the decoupled scaling of storage and compute, the ability to more easily shift workloads, and the support of higher-density storage with Ozone. Most interviewees were able to quantify their organization’s infrastructure savings, which ranged from 25% to more than 50%.

• The CTO architect in financial services laid out their organization’s overall improved utilization rates due to Cloudera: “We definitely experience a lot more utilization of those clusters. Before, the most we could get was, like, 30% utilization. Now, we’re more at 60% to 70% utilization.”
• Interviewees explained that a significant driver of reduced infrastructure costs was the decoupling of compute and storage, which allowed their organizations to scale them separately and more optimally. This led to higher utilization rates for both compute and storage nodes. As a result, the organizations required fewer nodes overall, which markedly reduced costs.
• The CTO in technology explained: “Decoupling is a really important aspect of digital transformation and digital architecture. Decoupling is critical because you want to mix and match and get the best technologies for different needs.”

• The executive director of data in financial services also emphasized the significance of a decoupled environment and noted the increased flexibility and utilization it led to: “There’s definitely added value because the compute is segregated from storage, and both can be expanded independently. That’s how Cloudera gives you the flexibility. We continuously expand the compute. There’s definitely more utilization.”

• Interviewees noted that with Cloudera, their organizations could add CPUs and GPUs optimized for compute, for instance. They explained that they needed fewer nodes because the performance of the existing ones dramatically increased.
• Several interviewees highlighted the importance of the integration of Kubernetes with Cloudera. The executive director of data in financial services said, “Because of Kubernetes and Cloudera, there’s definitely less capacity we need to plan.” The CTO in technology added: “Kubernetes is the overall architecture that we embraced. [We] can move workloads from one stack within our ecosystem to another because it’s not being used or because we can consolidate that usage. That means we’re lowering costs.”
• Interviewees noted that their organization’s storage density also improved with Cloudera, highlighting the benefit of Ozone object store in Cloudera. One interviewee reported that with improved storage density with Cloudera, their organization required 23% fewer storage nodes, which saved significant costs and also contributed to its sustainability goals.
• Multiple interviewees expressed that with Cloudera, their organization was generally able to bring the flexibility and cost efficiency of the public cloud on-prem.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Prior to using Cloudera, the composite’s annual infrastructure costs resulting from storage and compute nodes were $6 million.
• With Cloudera, the composite reduces these costs by 35%.

Risks. The benefits of cost savings with modern architecture will vary based on:

• The organization’s total infrastructure costs associated with storage and compute nodes and the tools and approaches it used prior to Cloudera.
• The extent to which the organization leverages Cloudera features such as decoupled scaling of storage and compute and the ability to shift workloads in order to see higher utilization and the need for fewer nodes.
• Whether or not the organization strategically obtains CPUs and GPUs optimized for compute.
• The amount of stored data that is repeatable.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $4.7 million.

Faster Time To Value

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that with Cloudera on Private Cloud, their organization could spin up and execute use cases more quickly in a centralized, cloud-native environment that provided the flexibility to scale as needed. Across interviewees’ organizations, Cloudera led to a 50% to more than 100% faster time to value from use cases. These use cases varied depending on organizational goals, but they focused on revenue generation as well as cost savings from risk mitigation and more efficient operations. The impact of this benefit was substantial, with multiple interviewees reporting dozens of significant use cases and tens of millions of dollars in financial gain.

• Interviewees reported that with Cloudera, their organization experienced faster time to value for use cases across business units due to the data now being more accessible in a centralized, cloud-native environment that allowed for actionable and scalable utilization.
• Interviewees detailed the functionality in Cloudera that contributed to the faster time to value. The CTO in technology said: “Before Cloudera, it could take up to six to nine months to sort through the data tables, do schemas, and all sorts of things to actually write the data. It was just hit or miss many times. Now, with Cloudera, it’s taking six to nine weeks. So, the difference is dramatic. Also, the scope and the breadth of the data you’re getting is so much better because Cloudera has the functionality to look at unstructured data [and] big data, along with what people are calling hidden data.”
• Interviewees frequently noted Cloudera’s openness, and its ability to integrate with open-source components and contribute to open-source projects.
• The CTO in technology stated: “A value of Cloudera is the fact that it really is open source in the sense of that Apache Iceberg approach that they’ve added to the portfolio. There are 30 or more open-source components with Apache Impala, Hive, and Kafka. All of those and that open type of architecture makes it significantly better compared to competitors out there.”  
• The senior director of IT operations in healthcare explained that with Cloudera, employees at their organization quickly derived actionable insights from the data: “We’ve become more productive with turnaround times. [With Cloudera,] you can connect the dots around different siloed environments. We’ve become more efficient in taking big data and building solutions off of that.”
• Interviewees’ organizations commonly used Cloudera for revenue-generating use cases. For instance, one interviewee noted how their organization used Cloudera for a successful hyper-personalized campaign that relied on transaction history and delivered more than 1 million offers per day.
• The CTO in technology added: “The data is used with marketing and sales groups and others because Cloudera is just really so good at what it does and gets the information in a timely fashion. It can package and provide the information they really need to be able to close more sales and generate more revenue for the organization.”

• Interviewees also said Cloudera improved revenue by supporting their organizations’ core R&D initiatives. The senior director of IT operations in healthcare explained: “Cloudera pulls in genomic data, patient data, and any other types. [Cloudera enables us to] mesh all of that data together, run quality analytics, and build predictive outcomes in a secure way. That’s tangible to the business. We have return on investment.”

• Interviewees repeatedly stated that technical users and end users could spin up the data use cases they needed faster. Many interviewees pointed to how Cloudera enabled quick action on their organization’s generative AI use cases.
• The executive director of data at a financial services firm elaborated: “When genAI emerged, within about two weeks, we were able to host the first genAI model. The reason we were able to do it so quickly is because Cloudera allows custom images [and] the flexibility of deploying any open source on top of Cloudera. It allowed us to go live within two weeks. That was a game changer.”

• The same organization used Cloudera to develop and deploy specialized in-house chatbots with both traditional and genAI foundations. These helped with knowledge management, including complex regulatory matters and coding assistance.
• Interviewees in financial services said their organizations widely used Cloudera for fraud detection, risk mitigation, and decision management use cases. They described using Cloudera to ingest real-time payment data and, in turn, to build models that scanned millions of financial transactions in real time to identify anomalous behavior.
• Interviewees explained that the speed with which their organizations could access, analyze, and leverage data meant that the data was fresher. The CTO in technology elaborated: “Data gets old fast. By having Cloudera, we can access that data quickly when we really need it. That benefits the end user dramatically, and also the company.”
• The same interviewee noted how the speed with Cloudera also improved accuracy: “Cloudera allows models to be developed faster in real time. That means that data scientists and data architects can get the right information and improve accuracy. That benefit alone is substantial. It gets that [accurate] information into the right hands so that they can promote certain initiatives.”
• The head of data platforms in financial services concluded that the data has the added benefit of having a multiplier effect: “The wonderful thing about data is that it has a multiplier effect. You bring it in for a given use case that you think will lead to this amount of revenue or this amount of cost savings, but in actual fact, down the line, the same data can be reused for a different use case. And, therefore, the sky is the limit on being able to measure the ROI.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• In the first year, the composite uses Cloudera on Private Cloud for 25 data use cases. This number increases to 35 use cases in the second year and  to 45 use cases by the third year.
• Prior to using Cloudera, the composite’s use cases took an average of three months for the time to value.
• With Cloudera, the composite’s use cases see time to value an average of 80% faster.
• A use case at the composite organization has an average monthly financial benefit of $70,000 due to benefits such as profit, cost savings, and risk mitigation.

Risks. The benefit of faster time to value will vary based on:

• The organization’s amount of use cases, their average time to value, and the average financial benefits they deliver.
• The processes and tools the organization used to execute and implement use cases prior to using Cloudera.
• The strategy the organization has in place to identify feasible and high-value use cases.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $11.5 million.

Enhanced Productivity For Data Teams

Evidence and data. Interviewees said their organization’s Cloudera on Private Cloud users including data administrators, architects, analysts saw time savings due to the solution’s easy-to-use interface, rolling restart, workload portability, and centralized data access. Interviewees estimated an average of 20% time savings for those employees impacted.

• Interviewees reported that Cloudera’s interface is easy to use, which led data administrators to experience time savings. The CTO in technology said: “On the resource side of it, Cloudera is easy to use compared to [alternatives.] … Because of that, we’re seeing, like, a 20% reduction in [the time they need to spend].”
• The same interviewee added that Cloudera’s efficient updating — including rolling upgrades in some instances — further saved employee time: “[Using] rolling upgrades instead of lockstep definitely saves time. Lockstep can delay things. It’s a process-side matter of how the data is pulled together and presented. It’s an advantage for sure.”
• Interviewees’ organizations also benefited from workload portability with Cloudera. Interviewees noted this could save significant time when they did not need to rearchitect applications for them to work with another platform.

• The CTO in technology discussed the significant time savings related to extract, transform, and load (ETL) work with Cloudera: “We’ve leveraged Cloudera to really create a native table format where you can build only one single data layer instead of multiple ones for any particular type of workload. And what’s really astonishing about it [is that] Cloudera dramatically reduces ETL overhead.”
• Interviewees also discussed the value and efficiency gains that stem from data being centralized with Cloudera, which resulted in more reuse of data and models instead of building those assets again. Additionally, interviewees spoke of the value of Cloudera driving alignment on queries and ensuring they run in the right order.
• The senior director of IT operations in healthcare emphasized the productivity gains realized by their organization’s data analysts: “Cloudera users are more productive with their time. Across our core laboratories, they’re connecting dots across previously siloed environments, and [they’re] able to take big data and build solutions off of it. So, they’ve become more efficient.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Thirty FTEs including data administrators, architects, and analysts who are key users of Cloudera see enhanced productivity with Cloudera.
• Due to Cloudera, these FTEs realize an average productivity improvement of 20%.
• The average fully burdened annual salary for these employees is $120,000.

Risks. The benefit of enhanced productivity for data teams will vary based on:

• The number of FTEs who leverage the platform.
• The tools and processes the FTEs used prior to using Cloudera.
• The extent to which data models are strategically designed to experience the full productivity benefits associated with Cloudera.
• The average fully burdened salaries of employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.6 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Furthering sustainability goals. Interviewees said investing in Cloudera on Private Cloud led their organizations to achieve their sustainability objectives. For instance, one interviewee said that with improved storage capacity with Cloudera, their organization avoided 500 additional servers. The interviewee described Cloudera as enabling the organization to limit infrastructure growth without negatively impacting business.
  
  The VP of platform engineering in financial services added: “Our company is a very huge proponent of reducing our carbon and other environmental impact footprints. That is a big deal to us. And, so, anything we do that reduces even our internal data-center footprint is huge. With more dense object store with Cloudera, we’re able to reduce our overall server purchase.”

• Hybrid flexibility. The CTO architect in financial services explained how Cloudera provided their organization with a hybrid solution that has a high degree of flexibility: “The world is hybrid. And, looking forward, it’s going to continue to be hybrid. [We use multiple cloud environments,] and the reason for that is [that we] follow [our] customers where they need [our] data. [We] need data to exist in five places. I can definitely tell you that Cloudera supports that and is competitive with the offerings that I see in the cloud.”
  
  The senior director of IT operations in healthcare said Cloudera brings the flexibility and efficiency of the public cloud on-prem: “It’s a game changer. Public cloud on-prem: Why does it have to come on-prem? Because of the size of our data sets, we’ll see latency and computational challenges by keeping it in a public cloud environment. Pulling that on-prem and having what we call a hybrid environment is a game changer to build models off that data and successfully grow from there.”

• Enhanced security. Multiple interviewees identified security as a top benefit of Cloudera. For instance, several said their organization had extremely stringent security requirements regarding external threats and which employees should be granted access. But the CTO in technology explained how Cloudera helped uphold those high standards: “[Cloudera supports] making sure that the data is only accessible on a need-to-know basis, which basically helps avoid a data breach.”
  
  Interviewees also explained that Cloudera provided one location to manage data-processing and data-access workloads, which prevented overlapping policies that would become out of sync over time. The head of data platforms in financial services said: “Cloudera tends to be an all-in-one solution when it comes to data governance and data lineage, unlike a traditional data warehouse where I may need to buy a complementary solution. That is imbued with Cloudera, helping us with data security and governance. [It’s] a single place to enforce our security policies.”
• Enabled AI initiatives. Many interviewees noted their organizations were highly focused on AI initiatives, including genAI, and pointed to the particular ways that Cloudera supported those. For example, interviewees explained that with the rise of AI, storage has become more strategically important since AI relies heavily on large amounts of data that sits in their storage. Other interviewees highlighted the computational power needed for their organization’s current and future AI use cases. For both storage and compute, interviewees’ organizations saw improved accessibility and efficiency with Cloudera.
• Improved exploratory work with data. The executive director of data in financial services explained that Cloudera made explorative work more affordable: “Cloudera addresses our big data requirements. The cost to scale is more manageable. We don’t have to watch our wallet or be as picky when it comes to ingestion of data as much as we did with the data-warehouse solution.” Additionally, interviewees said Cloudera provided data scientists with a platform to work with exploratory workloads in a manner that did not impact operational or regulatory reporting.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Cloudera on Private Cloud and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Having a strong future roadmap. Interviewees expressed confidence in the ability of Cloudera on Private Cloud to meet their organizations’ needs going forward as the data landscape continues to evolve. The executive director of data in financial services said: “We always look at the capabilities of any product. But one of the criteria is always also ‘What is their roadmap?’ The roadmap of Cloudera is quite promising. They have a clear vision. They’re not stopping or stuck. Rather, they are finding ways to improve.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).