I find, that like most things, it is not the tools, it is how they are used.

A good mechanic with basic tools can do great things, while someone with less understanding of the problem and needs ( aka: beginner/novice/ over confident sophomore, etc.) will be limited in their success regardless of the amazing tools they have.

Tools are great, but as Steve and others have pointed out, one must understand the problems.

Youtube has many videos on how to setup a Hadoop cluster in 30 minutes.

And with the ease that just about anyone can install SQL Server, we know that being able to install the tools is far different from being able to use them wisely.

I watched a webinar on how Microsoft has worked with Hortonworks to integrate Hadoop with the parallel data warehouse. I believe it was called Polybase. Very nice.

I hope we can see more of Polybase, and have access to it for those of use who do not have the resources to acquire PDW.