Hadoop based big data solutions – when big is really big

Author: Nathan Sandler

Over the years possibly every faction of the industry has been churning huge chunks of data relating to markets, customers and competitors. Gigabytes and terabytes have entered the public domain with data sets already being measured in petabytes and exabytes. Machine-to-machine interactions, sensors, recommendation engines and API’s have driven a massive proliferation of this data. Most of this data – as much as 80 % of data – has no structure, with most of the data being generated at machine speed; at high velocity.

Businesses have realized the existence of complexities of data management, with the data sets increasing manifolds due to mobility and commoditization of I.T. How the businesses cope with the data loads and extract value from it would define the competitive advantage that the businesses would have in future over the contemporaries.

Apache Hadoop is an open source software framework that assists data processing of large data sets in a cloud computing environment. Based on the legendary Google MapReduce, Hadoop is essentially a design for large scale analyses that needs examination of all the data in the repository. Being schema-less, Hadoop absorbs any type of data – structures and unstructured – from a number of sources that can be aggregated in numerous ways enabling deeper analysis. Hadoop essentially provides a highly scalable, cost effective, flexible, and fault tolerant solution to the “Big Data” problem. Hadoop is fast becoming a reliable Big Data choice, given its ability to address highly variable information formats, data velocity and data variance.The reception among corporate heavyweights like Facebook, Apple, AOL, The New York Times, Twitter and Hewlett-Packard stands as a testimonial of the widespread adoption of Hadoop.

While going about looking for a Hadoop solution, it becomes absolutely necessary to collaborate with the right partners. The best options would go beyond just Hadoop consulting and offer Hadoop implementations along with support services. It also becomes prudent to ensure a partners proficiency in open source softwares - vital for providing rich and flexible user- interface to the data being mined. Once you have a quality Hadoop partner you can look forward to enjoying all the benefits on offer. You can know more at http://www.cignex.com/technology/hadoop-consulting.