Professional Hadoop Solutions

Chapter 1

Big Data and the Hadoop Ecosystem

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Understanding the challenges of Big Data
• Getting to know the Hadoop ecosystem
• Getting familiar with Hadoop distributions
• Using Hadoop-based enterprise applications

Everyone says it — we are living in the era of “Big Data.” Chances are that you have heard this phrase. In today’s technology-fueled world where computing power has significantly increased, electronic devices are more commonplace, accessibility to the Internet has improved, and users have been able to transmit and collect more data than ever before.

Organizations are producing data at an astounding rate. It is reported that Facebook alone collects 250 terabytes a day. According to Thompson Reuters News Analytics, digital data production has more than doubled from almost 1 million petabytes (equal to about 1 billion terabytes) in 2009 to a projected 7.9 zettabytes (a zettabyte is equal to 1 million petabytes) in 2015, and an estimated 35 zettabytes in 2020. Other research organizations offer even higher estimates!

As organizations have begun to collect and produce massive amounts of data, they have recognized the advantages of data analysis. But they have also struggled to manage the massive amounts of information that they have. This has led to new challenges. How can you effectively store such a massive quantity of data? How can you effectively process it? How can you analyze your data in an efficient manner? Knowing that data will only increase, ...