Azure HDInsight uses the Hadoop components from the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) distribution. It deploys managed clusters in the cloud with a focus on high reliability and availability. Microsoft Active Directory is used for security and governance.

HDInsight includes the implementations of Hadoop ecosystem tools, such as Apache Spark, HBase, Kafka, Storm, Pig, Hive, Interactive Hive, Sqoop, Oozie, and Ambari. It also integrates with Business Intelligence (BI) tools, such as Power BI, Excel, SQL Server Analysis Services, and SQL Server Reporting Services.

Default storage for the HDFS used by HDInsight clusters can be either an Azure storage account or a Azure Data Lake store.