Big data processing applications helps to fully analyse all available data and find patterns in it. However, these applications have always been complex and not easy to use. They require experts with skills to operate these applications and mine useful data patterns. These people are called data scientists as people believe that, you needed to be a specialist in order to extract patterns in data. This isn’t true. The newest innovation in data processing applications is Apache Drill.

This application is incredibly easy to use, requires very little external help, is adaptable and can be used by platforms like Hadoop.

What is Apache Drill?

Apache Drill is actually an easy-to-use software framework which allows the user to easily scan large amounts of data and get the best results from them.

In even more depth, it is an ANSI SQL which is completely open-source, and can be used to operate many kinds of java-based programming platforms like the Hadoop. It can also work on other database platforms based on the NoSQL framework, like the newer MongoDB and HBase and even Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3.

Its nearest competitor is the Google’s Dremel, which can be considered as a user-friendly SQL solution and the strength of its own Infrastructure is a service (IaaS) named BigQuery. However, Dremel isn’t open-source. Apache Drill is often preferable as it has all the features and comparable speed of Dremel, and is open-source at the same time. In short, it is perfect for Hadoop, which is nowadays considered nearly synonymous with the word “Big Data”.

Why should you use Apache Drill?

It can perform all the jobs that SQL can perform and then some more. It can be used instead of the regular SQL framework in the user’s application like web portal, analytics, database driven, stand-alone etc. It also has compatibility with a wide range of structured and partially structured types of data like database data, mail data, SMS data etc. So, it can integrate with the main tool (like Hadoop platform, analytics platform, etc.) and enhance its capabilities like performance, stability, response time etc.

It can also simplify assessment of large data heaps by integrating data into one single stream and processing them all at once. This also enhances the speed of processing. It can process data in a small laptop to a large computer network.

Relationship of Apache Drill with NoSQL Databases

NoSQL can be considered as the future of big data processing. The data being collected is only expanding more and more. The resources are becoming huge in number and data processing is becoming difficult.

Thousands of servers are trying to record and process raw data into meaningful information.

The resources required will be higher in the not so distanced future. This is when the novel NoSQL comes in. As the amount of data grows, multiple compatibility issues arise because of the diverse types of data from different devices being added to the global database every day.

Thousands of formats are now available for each device, leading to increase in complexity of the data is with time. NoSQL databases can be used as a powerful framework for storing such data in its databases, which can be quickly processed by Apache Drill.

Problem Solving using Apache Drill

Complexity of Data – Complex data actually indicates those data heaps which are hard to assess, interpret and process with any SQL system. This includes data which doesn’t have a particular schema value. The schema value is extremely important as it categorises different kinds of data in a database. Without a specific schema value, a data cannot be recognised easily and assessed by any query language framework.

How can Apache Drill Help – Apache Drill is made specifically keeping the standards of such complexly arranged data in mind. It can even work with JSON data types which lacks schema values, but are similar to those NoSQL query languages which requires schema. Apache Drill is a smart solution as it searches continuously for a data’s schema keys while processing it. And it can easily process an extensive range of data types and can analyse data while interacting with the user.

Apache Drill can recognise the data types through its pre-loaded optimisers and change the data accordingly. Apache Drill is one of the most flexible solutions available, and it can adapt itself according to the type of data it is processing. It is powerful and dependable and can be used with any kind of query language like NoSQL and any big data processing application like Hadoop.

Wrap Up

Apache Drill is the closest to the perfect big data processing tool. It is powerful, easy-to-use and adaptable, versatile and open-source. It can be the solution to all big data issues, whether it is scaling or compatibility issues. It can assist current big data processing tool of an organisation and enhance it greatly.