Abstract: Implementations are provided herein for utilizing the two-part nature of HDFS protocol communications received in a non-native HDFS environment to use discriminative information learned in the NameNode request to make the client experience more efficient. NameNode requests can be received by any node among a cluster of nodes. It can be appreciated that in some non-native HDFS, clients can communicate with any node among a cluster of nodes to perform transactions and need not first communicate with a NameNode. In addition, any node among the cluster of nodes has access to any data within the HDFS. Thus, upon receiving a NameNode request, the non-native HDFS Cluster of Nodes can more effectively load balance the cluster by directing HDFS clients to connect with Nodes that are less busy than other nodes. In this sense, a more efficient client experience can be offered for HDFS clients within a non-native HDFS environment.