Microsoft have started supporting Hadoop on Azure, so this may be an alternative to Installing Local Platform Instance for some folks.
- Basic info -
Official announcement:
Microsoft, Hadoop and Big Data
http://blogs.technet.com/b/port25/archive/2011/10/11/microsoft-hadoop-and-big-data.aspx
MSDN Blogs > Distributed Development > Hadoop in Azure
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mariok/archive/2011/05/11/hadoop-in-azure.aspx