So, your boss says, ‘Let’s do big data!’ And you think: ‘I don’t even know what that means or what I have to do. Do I need big data? Do I need a bunch of servers?’ These are the questions we hear all the time.
A simple intro into the big data world is to take advantage of Azure blob storage. This is a great starting point since when you put data in Azure blob storage, it’s formatted very similar to how you put it into any other Hadoop storage scenario.
Once you get the data there and it’s in your file-based storage, here comes the big question: What am I going to do with this data? As you’re in the introduction phase, start simple. Power BI will connect to your blob storage, and it will connect the same as you would connect to an HDInsight or Hortonworks cluster.
Using Power BI, with limited learning curve and expense, you’ll be able to take advantage of the data you stored there in your beginning big data scenario. It also gives you the chance to start adding on to that, such as looking at an HDInsight or Hortonworks cluster to use and reference the storage, without moving your data around.
Check out Azure Data Week coming October 2018 – www.AzureDataWeek.com.
If your business wants to do big data, this is a great start on the path. If you’re doing other data warehouse work in Azure, you can use Azure blob storage as your staging area. It’s a simple way to begin without worrying about what you need from a server standpoint and infrastructure is eliminated from the equation.
