Big Data is an all-inclusive term that refers to data sets so large and complex that they need to be processed by specially designed hardware and software tools. The data sets are typically of the order of tera or exabytes in size. These data sets are created from a diverse range of sources: sensors that gather climate information, publicly available information such as magazines, newspapers, articles. Other examples where big data is generated include purchase transaction records, web logs, medical records, military surveillance, video and image archives, and large-scale e-commerce.
There is a heightened interest in Big Data and Big Data analysis and the implications they have for businesses. Big Data analysis is the process of examining huge quantities of data to find patterns, correlations, and other useful information that can help firms become more responsive to change, and to make better informed decisions.
Big Data analysis can be performed with data mining software. However, the unstructured data sources used for big data analysis are not necessarily suitable for investigation by traditional data mining software.
This is part of our series identifying the finest open source software for Big Data. This feature highlights the finest data analysis tools. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for anyone who needs to analyse huge volumes of unstructured data.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.
Let’s explore the 8 data analysis tools at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.
| Data Analysis Tools | |
|---|---|
| Hadoop | Distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers |
| Storm | Distributed and fault-tolerant realtime computation |
| Drill | Distributed system for interactive analysis of large-scale datasets |
| Spark | Unified analytics engine for large-scale data processing |
| Flink | Framework and distributed processing engine |
| Pentaho | Enterprise reporting, analysis, dashboard, data mining, workflow and more |
| Rapid Miner | Knowledge discovery in databases, machine learning, and data mining |
| HPCC Systems | Designed for the enterprise to resolve Big Data challenges |
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 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |