Introduction

Big data is opening up new opportunities for enterprises to extract insight from huge volumes of data in real time and across multiple relational and nonrelational data types. The architectures for realizing these opportunities are based on relatively less expensive and heterogeneous infrastructures than the traditional monolithic and hugely expensive options that exist currently.

The architectures for realizing big data solutions are composed of heterogeneous infrastructures, databases, and visualization and analytics tools. Selecting the right architecture is the key to harnessing the power of big data. However, heterogeneity brings with it multiple options for solving the same problem, as well as the need to evaluate trade-offs and validate the “fitness-for-purpose” of the solution.

There are myriad open source frameworks, databases, Hadoop distributions, and visualization and analytics tools available on the market, each one of them promising to be the best solution. How do you select the best end-to-end architecture to solve your big data problem?

• Most other big data books on the market focus on providing design patterns in the map reduce or Hadoop area only.
• This book covers the end-to-end application architecture required to realize a big data solution covering not only Hadoop, but also analytics and visualization issues.
• Everybody knows the use cases for big data and the stories of Walmart and EBay, but nobody describes the architecture required to realize those use cases.
• If you have a problem statement, you can use the book as a reference catalog to search the corresponding closest big data pattern and quickly use it to start building the application.
• CxOs are being approached by multiple vendors with promises of implementing the perfect big data solution. This book provides a catalog of application architectures used by peers in their industry.
• The current published content about big data architectures is meant for the scientist or the geek. This book attempts to provide a more industry-aligned view for architects.
• This book will provide software architects and solution designers with a ready catalog of big data application architecture patterns that have been distilled from real-life, big data applications in different industries like retail, telecommunication, banking, and insurance. The patterns in this book will provide the architecture foundation required to launch your next big data application.