Book Image

Mastering Spark for Data Science

By : Bifet, Morgan, Amend, Hallett, George
Book Image

Mastering Spark for Data Science

By: Bifet, Morgan, Amend, Hallett, George

Overview of this book

Data science seeks to transform the world using data, and this is typically achieved through disrupting and changing real processes in real industries. In order to operate at this level you need to build data science solutions of substance –solutions that solve real problems. Spark has emerged as the big data platform of choice for data scientists due to its speed, scalability, and easy-to-use APIs. This book deep dives into using Spark to deliver production-grade data science solutions. This process is demonstrated by exploring the construction of a sophisticated global news analysis service that uses Spark to generate continuous geopolitical and current affairs insights.You will learn all about the core Spark APIs and take a comprehensive tour of advanced libraries, including Spark SQL, Spark Streaming, MLlib, and more. You will be introduced to advanced techniques and methods that will help you to construct commercial-grade data products. Focusing on a sequence of tutorials that deliver a working news intelligence service, you will learn about advanced Spark architectures, how to work with geographic data in Spark, and how to tune Spark algorithms so they scale linearly.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

A structured life is a good life


When learning about the benefits of Spark and big data, you may have heard discussions about structured data versus semi-structured data versus unstructured data. While Spark promotes the use of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, it also provides the basis for its consistent treatment. The only constraint being that it should be record-based. Providing they are record-based, datasets can be transformed, enriched and manipulated in the same way, regardless of their organization.

However, it is worth noting that having unstructured data does not necessitate taking an unstructured approach. Having identified techniques for exploring datasets in the previous chapter, it would be tempting to dive straight into stashing data somewhere accessible and immediately commencing simple profiling analytics. In real life situations, this activity often takes precedence over due diligence. Once again, we would encourage you to consider several key areas of...