Big Data

Services like social networks, web analytics, and intelligent e-commerce often need to manage data at a scale too big for a traditional database. As scale and demand increase, so does Complexity. Fortunately, scalability and simplicity are not mutually exclusive-rather than using some trendy technology, a different approach is needed. Big data systems use many machines working in parallel to store and process data, which introduces fundamental challenges unfamiliar to most developers. Big Data shows how to build these systems using an architecture that takes advantage of clustered hardware along with new tools designed specifically to capture and analyze web-scale data. It describes a scalable, easy to understand approach to big data systems that can be built and run by a small team. Following a realistic example, this book guides readers through the theory of big data systems, how to use them in practice, and how to deploy and operate them once they're built. Owners of a Manning pBook purchased anywhere in the world can download a free eBook from manning.com at any time. They can do so multiple times and in any or all formats available (PDF, ePub or Kindle). To do so, customers must register their printed copy on Manning's site by creating a user account and then following instructions printed on the pBook registration insert at the front of the book.

Nathan Marz is currently working on a new startup. Previously, he was the lead engineer at BackType before being acquired by Twitter in 2011. At Twitter, he started the streaming compute team which provides and develops shared infrastructure to support many critical realtime applications throughout the company. Nathan is the creator of Cascalog and Storm, open-source projects which are relied upon by over 50 companies around the world, including Yahoo!, Twitter, Groupon, The Weather Channel, Taobao, and many more companies.

James Warren is an analytics architect at Storm8 with a background in big data processing, machine learning and scientific computing.