1. Apache Ambari is an open-source platform for provisioning, managing and monitoring Hadoop clusters. 2. New features in Ambari 2.4 include additional services, role-based access control, management packs and a Grafana UI for visualizing metrics. 3. Ambari simplifies cluster operations through deploying clusters via blueprints, automated Kerberos integration, host discovery and stack advisors. It also supports upgrading clusters with either rolling or express upgrades.