Hadoop

data variety / shutterstock

Data variety stands out from the three Vs of big data from the report of the big data survey conducted by NewVantage Partners in 2012. One of the survey results shows companies focusing more on data variety instead of data volume both now and in the next three years.[read more]

data archive / shutterstock

Preserving knowledge for generations is no easy task. Key components of this massive undertaking include decisions in technology, architecture, data storage, and data accessibility. What are steps to architect a solution to keep your own data safeguarded and accessible long-term?[read more]

big data & healthcare

With so much waste and opportunity in the healthcare industry, it should be no surprise that quite a few software vendors are focusing on Big Data–and not just behemoths like IBM. Start-ups like Explorys, Humedica, Apixio, and scores of others have entered the space.[read more]

Hadoop toolbox

Hadoop and Big Data have almost become synonymous. But Hadoop is not just Hadoop now. Over time it has evolved into a big herd of various tools, each meant to serve a different purpose. But glued together they give you a powerpacked combo. Here's my short intro to some very useful tools.[read more]

Hadoop, meet Ubuntu

Now, here is a treat for all you Hadoop and Ubuntu lovers. Last month, Canonical, the organization behind the Ubuntu operating system, partnered with MapR, one of the Hadoop heavyweights, in an effort to make Hadoop available as an integrated part of Ubuntu through its repositories.[read more]

Big data gaming

Online game developer Zynga operates at such a large scale that on a regular day, Zynga delivers one petabyte of content. They have built a flexible cloud server center that can easily add up to 1,000 servers in just 24 hours. So, big data is truly big at Zynga, but how do they cope with it?[read more]

Big Data and CRM

Customer Relationship Management has always involved data, but most of it used to be structured data; new techniques make it possible to process, store and analyse massive amounts of unstructured data as well, which means CRM can finally become a true revenue driver.[read more]

Big Data video

Here are three great videos on Big Data, Hadoop and HDFS: "Explaining Big Data," "Introducing Apache Hadoop: The Modern Data Operating System," and "Hadoop Tutorial: Intro to HDFS." Hope you enjoy them and do let me know if they are useful in the comments.[read more]

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All the big data efforts of Walmart are a good example of the massive possibilities of what can be done if big data is truly incorporated in the DNA of the company. Already, Walmart is able to optimize the local assortment of Walmart stores based on customer commentary on social media.[read more]

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Data Visualization plays a very significant role in the world of Business Intelligence (BI). By efficiently identifying trends and patterns, data visualization tools help the user quickly understand and relate to the data, without having to painstakingly sift through it. Here are some criteria to consider.[read more]

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I recently attended the annual Informatica analyst summit to get the latest on that company’s strategy and plans. The data integration provider offers a portfolio of information management software that supports today’s big data and information optimization needs.[read more]

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For every successful case study listed in Harvard Business Review, Fortune or the like on “Big Data” success, there are likely thousands of failures. Hidden behind all these “success stories,” there is a figurative graveyard of big data failures that we never see.[read more]

Individuals skilled at data manipulation, modeling and programming, often titled “data scientists,” are in great demand due to the growing need to analyze and get value from big data. But how important is it that they understand emerging technologies such as Hadoop?[read more]

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Facebook has admitted to a major bug in Insights that resulted in inaccurate data. But the social analytics problem is the second bit of evidence that Facebook is struggling with making its own massive data store. Facebook engineers also admitted struggling with Graph Search.[read more]

Uri Laserson has created an excellent guide to resampling from a large data set in Hadoop. Resampling is an important step in fitting ensemble models (including random forests and other bagging techniques), and Uri provides a step-by-step guide to resampling with RHadoop.[read more]