Impala is a massively parallel processing SQL query engine for Apache Hadoop. It allows real-time queries on large datasets using existing SQL skills. Impala's architecture includes impalad daemons that process queries in parallel across nodes, a statestore for metadata coordination, and a new execution engine written in C++. It aims to provide faster performance than Hive for interactive queries while leveraging Hadoop's existing ecosystem. The first general availability release is planned for April 2013.