Apache Hive is a data warehouse infrastructure built on top of Apache Hadoop, designed for querying and managing large datasets stored in distributed storage systems. It was originally developed by Facebook to handle their massive data influx and is now widely used for ad-hoc querying and analysis without requiring in-depth knowledge of MapReduce.

One of the key features of Hive is its SQL-like query language called HiveQL, which allows users to perform data manipulation and definition tasks similar to traditional SQL. Hive supports various storage types, including plain text and CSV, and provides functionalities for data modeling, ETL processes, and built-in User Defined Functions (UDFs) for data manipulation.

Despite its popularity, there is a growing perception that Hive may be becoming obsolete as the big data landscape shifts towards technologies like Apache Spark and cloud-based data warehouses. However, it still remains a valuable tool for specific use cases, such as text mining, document indexing, and log processing ¹²⁵.