PDI is unique in that it can execute both outside of a Hadoop cluster and within the nodes of a Hadoop cluster. From outside a Hadoop cluster, PDI can extract data from or load data into Hadoop HDFS, Hive and HBase. When executed within the Hadoop cluster, PDI transformations can be used as Mapper and/or Reducer tasks, allowing PDI with Pentaho MapReduce to be used as visual programming tool for MapReduce.