Hadoop Implementation
Plan, Costs, Tools, and Best Practices
In big data services since 2013, ScienceSoft designs, develops, and supports secure and scalable Hadoop-based apps that drive high ROI and successfully handle quickly growing volumes of data.
Hadoop Implementation In a Nutshell
Hadoop implementation is a crucial first step to building powerful big data solutions capable of processing massive datasets and driving advanced analytics. Adopted by such global market giants as Facebook, eBay, Uber, Netflix, and LinkedIn, Hadoop-based apps help handle petabytes of data from various sources and derive strategically vital insights from it.
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Key big data implementation steps: feasibility study, requirements engineering, software conceptualization and planning, architecture design, Hadoop implementation and testing, deployment, support and maintenance. Team: project manager, business analyst, big data architect, Hadoop developers, data engineer, data scientist, data analyst, DataOps engineer, DevOps engineer, QA engineer, test engineers. Costs: from $50K to $2+M, depending on the project scope. |
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With extensive hands-on experience in big data, ScienceSoft designs and implements secure and scalable Hadoop-based solutions for 30+ industries, including BFSI, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, education, telecoms, and more.
Hadoop Implementation Plan
Hadoop may be used as a base for a large variety of components (e.g., Hive, HBase, Spark, etc.) to meet different purposes. So, its implementation roadmap naturally alters depending on the solution requirements. Still, based on ScienceSoft’s experience, there are six high-level steps that are common for most Hadoop projects:
- Analyzing your business needs and goals, outlining the current data handling issues (e.g., low system performance due to increased volume of heterogeneous data, data quality management challenges).
- Evaluating the viability of implementing a Hadoop-based app, calculating the approximate ROI and future operational costs for the solution-to-be.
- Eliciting functional and non-functional requirements for the Hadoop solution, including the relevant compliance requirements (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR).
- Identifying the required data sources with regard to the data type, volume, structure, etc. Deciding on target data quality thresholds (e.g., data consistency, completeness, accuracy, auditability).
- Deciding on the data processing approach (batch, real-time, both).
- Defining the needed integrations with the existing apps and IT infrastructure components.
- Defining the key logical components of the future app (e.g., a data lake, batch and/or real-time processing, a data warehouse, analytics and reporting modules).
- Estimating the required size and structure of Hadoop clusters, taking into account:
- The volume of data to be ingested by Hadoop.
- The expected data flow growth.
- Replication factor (e.g., for an HDFS cluster it’s 3 by default).
- Compression rate (if applicable).
- The space reserved for OS activities.
- Choosing the deployment model (on-premises, cloud, hybrid).
- Selecting the best suited technology stack.
- Preparing a detailed project plan, including the project schedule, required skills, budget, etc.
To help our customers choose the most cost-efficient deployment model, ScienceSoft focuses on the key priorities of the project.
We usually recommend deploying Hadoop in the cloud if application elasticity is needed and the requirements for the computing resources are likely to change in the future (e.g., you may need more storage or processing power). That’s the case for the majority of Hadoop-based apps, so cloud deployment is our go-to option.
Going for on-premises deployment is feasible if harsh security requirements are to be met, the project scope is unlikely to change, and the customer is ready to invest in hardware, office space, DevOps team ramp-up, etc.
- Creating a high-level scheme of the future solution with the key data objects, their connections, and major data flows.
- Working out the data quality management strategy.
- Planning the data security measures (encryption of data at rest and in motion, data masking, user authentication, fine-grained user access control).
- Designing a scalable solution architecture that contains at least four major layers:
- Distributed data storage layer represented by HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System). As the name suggests, HDFS divides large incoming files into manageable data blocks and replicates each dataset at least 3 times to store them across several nodes, or computers. This way, data is protected against loss in case of a node failure. Among HDFS’s alternatives offered by cloud providers are Amazon S3 and Azure Blob Storage.
- Resource management layer consisting of YARN that serves as an OS to a Hadoop-based solution. YARN ensures balanced resource loading by scheduling the data processing jobs. If supplemented with Apache Spark or Storm, YARN can help enable stream data processing.
- Data processing layer with MapReduce at its core that splits input data to be processed in parallel as individual units. The processed datasets are then sorted out and aggregated as a final output ready for querying. Nowadays, data processing is often conducted with the help of additional tools, such as Apache Hive, Pig, and other tools depending on the specific solution’s needs.
- Data presentation layer (usually represented by Hive and/or HBase) that provides quick access to the data stored in Hadoop, enabling data querying and further analysis.
In real-life Hadoop-based apps, Hadoop techs are most often combined with other big data frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Storm, Kafka, Flink) to achieve the desired functionality.
- Setting up the environments for development and delivery automation (СI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, etc.).
- Building the Hadoop-based app using the selected techs and implementing the planned data security measures.
- Establishing QA processes in parallel with the development. Conducting comprehensive testing, including functional testing (validating the app’s business logic, continuous data availability, report generation, etc.), performance, security, and compliance testing.
- Running pre-launch user acceptance tests to confirm that the solution performs well in real-world scenarios.
- Launching the application in the production environment, establishing the required security controls (access permissions, logging mechanisms, encryption key management, patching automation, etc.).
- Choosing and configuring the monitoring tools to track the computing resources capacity and usage, performance, connectivity, DataNode health, etc.
- Starting data ingestion from real-life data sources, ensuring that the target data quality thresholds are achieved.
- Conducting user training.
- Setting the support and maintenance procedures to ensure the smooth operation of the solution: addressing user and system issues, optimizing the usage of computing and storage resources, etc.
- Adjusting the solution to the evolving business needs: adding new functional modules and integrations, implementing new security measures, etc.
Our Customers Say
We needed a proficient big data consultancy to deploy a Hadoop lab for us and to support us on the way to its successful and fast adoption. ScienceSoft's team proved their mastery in a vast range of big data technologies we required: Hadoop Distributed File System, Hadoop MapReduce, Apache Hive, Apache Ambari, Apache Oozie, Apache Spark, Apache ZooKeeper are just a couple of names. ScienceSoft's team also showed themselves great consultants. Whenever a question arose, we got it answered almost instantly.
Kaiyang Liang Ph.D., Professor, Miami Dade College
Why Choose ScienceSoft for Hadoop Implementation
- 34 years in data analytics and data science.
- 10 years in end-to-end Hadoop implementation.
- Working experience with 30+ industries, including BFSI, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, education, telecoms, and more.
- 700+ experts on board, including big data architects, Hadoop developers, DataOps engineers, and more.
- A Microsoft partner since 2008.
- An AWS Select Tier Services Partner.
- Established Agile and DevOps practices.
- ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified to ensure mature quality management system and the security of the customers' data.
- For the second straight year, ScienceSoft USA Corporation is listed among The Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies by the Financial Times.
Project manager
- Outlines the timeframes, budget, key milestones, and KPIs of a Hadoop implementation project.
- Tracks project progress, reports to the stakeholders.
Business analyst
- Investigates the business needs or product vision (for SaaS apps).
- Conducts an in-depth feasibility study of the Hadoop implementation project.
- Elicits the functional and non-functional requirements for the solution to-be.
Big data architect
- Develops several architectural concepts and presents them to the project stakeholders.
- Creates data models and designs the chosen solution architecture.
- Selects the best suited tech stack.
Hadoop developer
- Assists in choosing optimal techs.
- Develops Hadoop modules in line with the solution design, integrates the components with the target systems.
- Fixes the found code defects according to QA team’s notices.
Data engineer
- Participates in creating data models.
- Builds and manages the data pipelines.
- Works out and implements a data quality management strategy.
Data scientist
- Designs and implements ML models (if needed).
- Sets up predictive and prescriptive analytics.
Data analyst
- Closely collaborates with a data engineer on the data quality management strategy.
- Configures the analytics and reporting tools.
DataOps engineer
- Implements DevOps practices to the big data pipelines and workflows to provide faster access to data processing results and boost the quality of data analytics.
DevOps engineer
- Configures the development infrastructure.
- Introduces CI/CD pipelines to automate the development and release.
- Moves the solution into the production environment, sets up security controls.
- Monitors Hadoop-based app performance, security, availability etc.
QA engineer
- Works out and implements a QA strategy for Hadoop implementation and high-level testing plans for the solution components.
Test engineer
- Runs manual and automated tests to comprehensively test the Hadoop-based app.
- Reports on the detected issues and validates the remediated defects.
Technologies ScienceSoft Uses to Develop Big Data Solutions
Distributed storage
By request of a leading market research company, we have built a Hadoop-based big data solution for monitoring and analyzing advertising channels in 10+ countries.
Database management
Our Apache Cassandra consultants helped a leading Internet of Vehicles company enhance their big data solution that analyzes IoT data from 600,000 vehicles.
We leverage Azure Cosmos DB to implement a multi-model, globally distributed, elastic NoSQL database on the cloud. Our team used Cosmos DB in a connected car solution for one of the world’s technology leaders.
We use Amazon Redshift to build cost-effective data warehouses that easily handle complex queries and large amounts of data.
We use Amazon DynamoDB as a NoSQL database service for solutions that require low latency, high scalability and always available data.
ScienceSoft has helped one of the top market research companies migrate its big data solution for advertising channel analysis to Apache Hive. Together with other improvements, this led tо 100x faster data processing.
We use HBase if your database should scale to billions of rows and millions of columns while maintaining constant write and read performance.
With ScienceSoft’s managed IT support for Apache NiFi, an American biotechnology corporation got 10x faster big data processing, and its software stability increased from 50% to 99%.
Data management
Data streaming and stream processing
We use Kafka for handling big data streams. In our IoT pet tracking solution, Kafka processes 30,000+ events per second from 1 million devices.
With ScienceSoft’s managed IT support for Apache NiFi, an American biotechnology corporation got 10x faster big data processing, and its software stability increased from 50% to 99%.
A large US-based jewelry manufacturer and retailer relies on ETL pipelines built by ScienceSoft’s Spark developers.
Batch processing
Data warehouse, ad hoc exploration and reporting
ScienceSoft has used PostgreSQL in an IoT fleet management solution that supports 2,000+ customers with 26,500+ IoT devices. We’ve also helped a fintech startup promptly launch a top-flight BNPL product based on PostgreSQL.
We use Amazon Redshift to build cost-effective data warehouses that easily handle complex queries and large amounts of data.
Practice
7 years
ScienceSoft sets up Power BI to process data from any source and report on data findings in a user-friendly format.
Programming languages
Practice
10 years
Projects
50+
Workforce
30
ScienceSoft's Python developers and data scientists excel at building general-purpose Python apps, big data and IoT platforms, AI and ML-based apps, and BI solutions.
Practice
25 years
Projects
110+
Workforce
40+
ScienceSoft's Java developers build secure, resilient and efficient cloud-native and cloud-only software of any complexity and successfully modernize legacy software solutions.
Practice
34 years
Workforce
40
ScienceSoft's C++ developers created the desktop version of Viber and an award-winning imaging application for a global leader in image processing.
Hadoop Implementation Costs
Core cost factors
The cost of Hadoop implementation varies greatly from case to case. Based on ScienceSoft’s experience, the following factors are major cost considerations for Hadoop-based apps:
- The type and complexity of business purposes a Hadoop-based app needs to serve (e.g., data storage and warehousing, customer analytics, fraud detection).
- The architecture complexity, the number of app modules.
- The requirements for software availability, performance, scalability, security, and compliance.
- The software deployment model (on-premises, cloud, hybrid).
- The number and variety of data sources, the complexity of data flows.
- The type of data processing (batch, real-time/near real-time, both), the required processing speed.
- The data volume to be collected, stored, and processed by the system.
- The data cleansing specifics, the target data quality thresholds (completeness, consistency, accuracy, etc.).
- The big data analytics tools (machine learning, OLAP cubes, self-service BI) to implement in the solution.
- The scope of automated and manual testing.
- The team composition and its members’ seniority level, the chosen sourcing model.
Sample cost ranges
$50,000–$100,000
For a solution with simple data ingestion and analytics functionality.
$100,000–$500,000
For a solution that enables data ingestion from multiple sources, data cleansing, and data analysis for various purposes.
$500,000–$2,000,000
For a high-end solution that allows for fast and efficient processing and analysis of massive datasets of different nature.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, TX, US. Since 2013, we have been designing, developing, and testing highly efficient and scalable Hadoop-based apps. In our big data projects, we employ robust quality management system and guarantee the security of our customers’ data, as proven by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certificates.
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