If you are a beginner to big data and are looking to buy that first book, then you will not repent purchasing this book. It provides an easy-to-read structured path through the major topics that are part of the big data landscape.
If you are an expert and need in-depth analysis of certain topics then you can skip this one. Having said that, inspite of my extensive big data background I found the book to be well written and informative with lots of great features (like thousands of "for dummies" books before it).
Some of the topics covered in the book are:
- A definition of big data
- Profiles of various available technologies
- The role of the cloud
- How MapReduce aids big data management
- Why Hadoop is so important
- Some specific uses for text analytics
- How to approach big data security and privacy
- Ten best practices for managing big data
The book's authors are Judith Hurwitz & Alan Nugent, both have extensive cloud computing and big data backgrounds. The book will release on April 22, 2013 and I recommend the book to my readers.
Overall 3.5 out of 5 stars.