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Apache HBase is an open-source, distributed, versioned, non-relational database modeled after Google's Bigtable. It is built on top of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), providing bigtable-like capabilities for Hadoop. Apache HBase is an non-relational, NoSQL database which runs on top of HDFS and is used in data warehouses for real-time read/write access to large datasets. The key features and uses of HBase are:

• Column-oriented Storage: Unlike traditional relational databases that store data in rows, HBase stores data in columns, making it well-suited for read and write access to large datasets with sparse data fields. 

• Scalability: HBase is designed to scale horizontally, meaning it can handle very large amounts of data across a cluster of servers. This scalability makes it a good choice for applications with very large datasets. 

• Real-time Access: It provides real-time read/write access to its data, which makes it suitable for applications that require real-time analytics and data retrieval. 

• Data Replication: HBase supports automatic sharding and replication of data, ensuring high availability and disaster recovery. Data is automatically partitioned across the cluster with multiple copies. 

• Integration with Hadoop: It integrates seamlessly with the Hadoop ecosystem, allowing it to serve as a powerful tool for big data analysis with MapReduce, data processing with Apache Spark, and more. 

• Consistency: HBase provides strong consistency for reads and writes, ensuring that data is accurate across the database. 

• The component of HBase that serves as a centralized service for maintaining configuration information and ensuring healthy links between nodes is ZooKeeper. ZooKeeper is used in HBase to manage the overall structure of the distributed environment and coordinate between the nodes.
• Other properties:
  • Stores data in a distributed manner across nodes on a network.
  • Runs on top of Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).

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