To a first approximation, HCatalog is the thing that will make Hadoop play nicely with all kinds of ETLT (Extract/Transform/Load/Transform). However, HCatalog is both less and more than that: Less, because some of the basic features people expect in HCatalog may well wind up in other projects instead. More, in that HCatalog could (also) be regarded as a manifestation of efforts to make Hadoop/Hive