Amid growing demand for data management in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Cloudera has earned the highest rating in the data lakehouse category evaluation by global market research firm Forrester. This result comes amidst a trend where the importance of data governance and real-time accessibility is being highlighted alongside the spread of agentic AI.

Cloudera announced on the 3rd that it was named a leader in the 'The Forrester Wave™: Data Lakehouses, Q3 2026' report.

This evaluation was conducted based on delivery capabilities, strategy, and customer feedback, and Cloudera received the highest score in the 'Vision and Roadmap' category.

The Forrester report assessed that the Cloudera platform supports zero-copy multi-engine access, real-time streaming, Federated SQL, semantic and vector search, agentic AI workflows, autoscaling, and enterprise-grade observability.

In addition, it was considered suitable for enterprises requiring hybrid flexibility, robust governance, real-time analytics, and operational control in large-scale distributed and highly regulated data environments.

Cloudera's Open Data Lakehouse integrates and manages distributed enterprise data on a single platform and supports the operation of agentic AI across cloud, on-premises, and sovereign environments, the company explained.

Leo Brunnick, Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Cloudera, said, “Data quality, governance, and accessibility have emerged as key elements for the success of AI strategies,” adding, “This selection as a leader is a result of the recognition of Cloudera’s vision for open hybrid lakehouses.”

He added, “We are supporting customers in scaling trusted AI by combining enterprise-grade governance with the flexibility of various deployment environments.”