Advantages of using MapReduce for business analytics

Business Analytics (BA) is a tricky job, which cannot be efficiently handled with SQL alone. For example, if you keep on relying on SQL, important things like click stream analysis will continue to consume a lot of time. In a similar fashion, developing queries is also likely to be a time-consuming process. However, if you leverage the power of MapReduce, you can overcome these limitations without any difficulty. First of all, while dealing with larger data sets, you will be able to achieve higher performance than before. In fact, things that were earlier taking couple of minutes will now be running in just a few seconds.

Secondly, your team of developers will no longer have to come up with lengthy SQL queries. They should be able to develop the queries way faster, thereby saving time and resources. Of course, speed of development is likely to play an important role when you are considering things like marketing analysis. Thirdly, even if your analysts only know SQL, there is nothing to worry about. They should be able to look forward to richer analytics without having to make several changes in the doable. Last but not least, when it comes to Business Analytics, MapReduce or rather the combination of MapReduce and SQL can help you in several ways.

For example, whether it’s relational analysis or data transformation, you should be able to carry out both with ease. After all, if the former can help you in unraveling crucial relationships as far as data points are concerned and the latter can be your platform for deriving advanced insights, you cannot afford to experience any difficulty; MapReduce will ensure that you don’t. Nevertheless, in addition to the above mentioned tasks, you can expect to have your way with data parsers, text analysis, and even path & pattern analysis. Last but not least, if at all, you want to process statistical calculations, doing so should not be a problem anymore.

Meanwhile, it is important for you to figure out what type of role BA can play in your business and depending upon the same, you can decide whether or not you should use MapReduce. In fact, once you are done, you will also be able to choose between various products and find out if it is an appliance that you require. However, if you decide to opt for an appliance, make sure that there is some familiarity between your data warehouse deployments and the consoles that will come along with the appliance.