Hadoop is, in basic terms, a library for writing distributed data processing programs using the MapReduce framework. This programming framework is an open-source system, which means that anyone with the right skill set can develop the programs they need to suit their individual situation. If it is done right, it can have the ability to process massive application data sets and scale up to meet your needs as the project grows.

Developers from all over the world are currently contributing to the growth of Hadoop, and many more people are discovering exactly how it can help them. By using a distributed computing model, they are able to sort through petabytes of data by using thousands of nodes. As the community of programmers continues to work on the application framework, it will be more suited to even more situations.