Book Image

Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics

By : Sunila Gollapudi
Book Image

Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics

By: Sunila Gollapudi

Overview of this book

Organizations are leveraging the use of data and analytics to gain a competitive advantage over their opposition. Therefore, organizations are quickly becoming more and more data driven. With the advent of Big Data, existing Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions are becoming obsolete, and a requisite for new agile platforms consisting of all the aspects of Big Data has become inevitable. From loading/integrating data to presenting analytical visualizations and reports, the new Big Data platforms like Greenplum do it all. It is now the mindset of the user that requires a tuning to put the solutions to work. "Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics" is a practical, hands-on guide to learning and implementing Big Data Analytics using the Greenplum Integrated Analytics Platform. From processing structured and unstructured data to presenting the results/insights to key business stakeholders, this book explains it all. "Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics" discusses the key characteristics of Big Data and its impact on current Data Warehousing platforms. It will take you through the standard Data Science project lifecycle and will lay down the key requirements for an integrated analytics platform. It then explores the various software and appliance components of Greenplum and discusses the relevance of each component at every level in the Data Science lifecycle. You will also learn Big Data architectural patterns and recap some key advanced analytics techniques in detail. The book will also take a look at programming with R and integration with Greenplum for implementing analytics. Additionally, you will explore MADlib and advanced SQL techniques in Greenplum for analytics. This book also elaborates on the physical architecture aspects of Greenplum with guidance on handling high-availability, back-up, and recovery.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

In-database analytics options (Greenplum-specific)


This section covers advanced SQL techniques for in-database analytics within Greenplum.

The following techniques will be discussed in detail:

  • Windows functions

  • User-defined functions and aggregates

Window functions

Window functions are a new class of functions introduced in Greenplum. The WINDOW clause is used to define a window that can be used in the OVER() expression of a window function such as rank or avg. For information on OLAP extensions and window functions refer to the Greenplum Database Reference guide. Window functions allow application developers to more easily compose complex OLAP queries using standard SQL commands. For example:

  • Moving averages or sums can be calculated over various intervals.

  • Aggregations and ranks can be reset as selected column values change.

  • Complex ratios can be expressed in simple terms. Window functions can only be used in the SELECT list, between the SELECT and FROM keywords of a query.

Unlike aggregate functions...