Much easier to configure and install. * You get Pig, Wukong and Dumbo out of the box. Don't learn Java hadoop, use one of those. * Standardized setup which rea

Much easier to configure and install. * You get Pig, Wukong and Dumbo out of the box. Don't learn Java hadoop, use one of those. * Standardized setup which really helps if you have to seek IRC or other outside help * Reasonable default parameters tuned for each of the EC2 instance sizes. * Spinning up and tearing down a cluster is so much easier: experiment away. EC2-backed instances help this too. Now of course you're trading the complexity of setting up Hadoop with the complexity of setting up chef and poolparty and EC2 -- but those are far less esoteric; and they either work or they don't.