Mode’s nifty data analysis tool tacks on support for Hadoop tools like Hive and Impala

Mode Analytics, a startup founded by former Yammer data analysts that offers a cloud service for analyzing data, is becoming more powerful. Today the startup announced support for certain types of Hadoop open-source software for querying data, including Apache Hive and Cloudera’s Impala.

Previously, business analysts could import data from cloud-based data storage services like Amazon Web Services’ Redshift and Heroku’s PostgreSQL, as well as databases in companies’ on-premises data centers, such as MySQL. But if companies were sticking lots of different types of data into Hadoop, Mode couldn’t help very much when it comes to giving several people access to data and making reports on it.

No longer. Now Mode could become more useful for analyzing more data types in one place, rather than forcing people to use multiple tools. Which should make it more interesting for more companies — because engineers won’t be limited to command-line interface (CLI) for Impala or Hive. Mode goes considerably beyond a CLI, and the tool makes it easy to share data with colleagues.

The move is a result of customers asking for Hadoop support, Mode cofounder and chief executive Derek Steer told VentureBeat. Look at TuneIn, for instance — it has connected Mode to MySQL, Redshift, and Impala, according to today’s blog post.

“The rest of the value [proposition], in addition to getting everything queryable through one tool, is that users of these databases typically execute longer-running queries,” Steer wrote in a message to VentureBeat. “If you have to wait an hour or more to get results, you can save a lot of time by looking at what your teammates have done in mode and adapting their work rather than doing the exploration from scratch.”

In November, Mode introduced pre-built queries for making sleek and helpful reports. The San Francisco startup announced a $2 million funding round in June.