Businessmodel of MapR Technologies

Customer Segments

MapR has a niche market business model, focusing on a specialized customer segment. It markets its product to organizations with demanding production needs. Its two customer groups are:

• Non-Enterprise: MapR offers MapR Converged Community Edition (MapR CE) to the general public. It is a free version of the MapR Converged Data Platform, with community forum support for unlimited production use. MapR CE includes Hadoop, Spark, MapR-DB, MapR-FS, and MapR Streams.
• Enterprise: MapR offers MapR Converged Enterprise Edition (MapR EE) to organizations engaged in critical deployments requiring business continuity. It is a commercial version of the MapR Converged Data Platform that includes MapR Platform Services for high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) and provides MapR Premium Support. Flexible packages are available, allowing customers to select one or more MapR Modules for Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, MapR Streams and MapRDB, as well as other add-ons for Apache Drill, Apache Solr, Apache HBase, and MapR POSIX Client. ### Value Proposition

MapR offers three primary value propositions: accessibility, convenience, and performance.

• Accessibility: MapR’s platform is based on established open APIs and interfaces. This means that commercial software providers such as SAS, HP, SAP, and Cisco can easily deploy large scale applications onto the platform. It enables even small groups of developers to produce enterprise-grade software solutions.
• Convenience: In contrast to most Hadoop distributions that require different clusters for multiple applications, MapR’s Converged Data Platofrm is designed to process database tables, distributed files, and event streams in a single unified layer. This allows organizations to support both analytic apps (e.g., Apache Drill, Impala, and Hive) and operational apps (e.g., HBase) on one cluster, significantly minimizing costs as they grow their big data deployment.
• Performance:  MapR indicates that through use of its product, most of its customers achieve payback in less than 12 months and receive a more than 5X return on investment. ### Channels

MapR’s main channel is direct sales to organizations. It also promotes its offerings through its website and social media pages, trade shows and conferences, and free webinars and training sessions for its products.

Customer Relationships

MapR’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company encourages product users to contact it via phone, e-mail, or its website in order to receive assistance. For Enterprise customers, it offers 24/7 phone support. It also conducts free training workshops on numerous topics to help users get comfortable.

Key Activities

MapR’s business model involves maintaining, enhancing, and updating its Converged Data Platform that utilizes Hadoop and Spark.

Key Partners

MapR operates the Advantage Partner Program, which features the following partner types:

• Technology Partners: The company invites tech firms to certify and integrate their solutions with the MapR platform in order to generate a broad variety of solutions.
• Systems Integrators/Consultants: The company collaborates with professional services firms to help their clients deploy Hadoop successfully. Service firms are required to have an active big data practice to join, and must have 2+ certified members to become a Certified SI & Consulting Partner.
• Authorized Resellers: The company recruits reseller partners to offer MapR’s platform to customers. Resellers are required to have an active big data practice, 2+ staff members that are certified with MapR, an outbound sales organization with an in-person selling model, and complementary products and services.
• OEM Partners: The company works with manufacturers to help them integrate or embed its platform into their products. MapR’s partners include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SAP, Cisco, and Teradata.

Key Resources

MapR’s main resource is its proprietary software platform. The company also relies heavily on its engineering and customer service staff. Finally, as a relatively new startup it depends to a large extent on investors, and has raised over $144 million in financing.

Cost Structure

MapR has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a premium value proposition through personal service. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing expenses, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are customer support/operations and administrative expenses.

Revenue Streams

MapR has two revenue streams:

• Software subscriptions: More than 90% of the firm’s revenues come from this stream, which generates earnings through the software’s Enterprise edition.
• Training classes: While MapR does offer many classes for free, it also provides paid classes to help customers train for certification as a Hadoop expert.