Careers in big data analytics offer huge opportunities and rewards for qualified professionals who can quantify information and analyse selected data
The exponential growth of the huge and constantly expanding library that is the internet has created an explosive information storage, recall and utility industry known as ‘big data’.
According to Margaret Rouse, who writes and manages Whatls.com, TechTarget’s IT encyclopaedia, big data (aka Hadoop) is “an evolving term that describes any voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for information”. The transnational IT hardware and software manufacturing giant IBM describes big data as an “all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large or complex that it becomes difficult to process them using traditional data processing applications”. Therefore Hadoop is a distributive file system that stores and processes data “by dividing workloads across three, five or thousands of servers”, and has created a new profession of big data analytics.
Study programmes
Unsurprisingly, careers in big data analytics offer huge opportunities and rewards for well-educated professionals with aptitude for quantifying information and critically and objectively analysing selected data from several perspectives. With all industries increasingly relying on data to innovate and improve the next generation of products and services, for individuals with the right mix of professional qualifications, analytical skills and hands-on experience of advanced technologies such as Hadoop, the future in big data is very promising.
To make a career in Hadoop and big data technologies, individuals need to be graduates/postgraduates in computer science from the IITs or regional engineering colleges, with online training and some experience of Hadoop and big data technologies. To acquaint engineering graduates with Hadoop, several start-ups such as LearnSocial.com and Intellipat.com are offering online Hadoop developer and data analytics programs.
Remuneration prospects
LearnSocial.com, founded by Raju Vanapala in June 2014, is the country’s fastest growing portal for online big data Hadoop courses. The platform enables industry experts rather than academics to train learners online, and over the past seven months has emerged as India’s largest globally accessible platform for big data training programs. With big data/Hadoop-trained professionals urgently required by almost all industries, remuneration packages are good, starting at Rs.3.5-5 lakh per annum. Trained professionals with two-three years’ experience take home Rs.9-10 lakh per year.
“The Indian big data processing industry is predicted to grow five-fold with aggregate revenues of $1 billion (Rs.6,154 crore) by 2015, and acquire a 4 percent global market share. As the size of stored data rises, the use of Hadoop technologies will also increase commensurately. The demand for experts in this area is outpacing supply as this becomes the preferred platform for data management and analytics,” says Vanapala, founder and CEO of LearnSocial.com. A computer applications postgraduate of Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Vanapala went solo immediately after graduation and promoted Way2Online Interactive Pvt. Ltd in 2004 which with over 40 million users countrywide, is India’s leading advertising-driven cell phones free SMS service provider.
Professional profile
Last June, Vanapala promoted Way 2 Digital Pvt. Ltd which offers a range of instructor-led “cutting edge and industry relevant courses curated with industry leaders and taught by passionate industry experts with hands-on knowledge” on the LearnSocial.com platform. Big data/Hadoop learning programs is the first initiative of the new online learning company.
“Essentially Hadoop collects huge packets of data and classifies it using Map-Reduce technology. Hadoop is the combination of online running applications of very huge scale built on commodity hardware. It is uncluttered source software handled by the Apache Software Foundation and it’s very helpful in storing and managing huge amounts of data inexpensively and professionally,” he explains.
According to Vanapala, IT professionals with Hadoop skills are in great demand. “In particular tech firms, retail banks and technology-based start-ups urgently need Hadoop professionals to sustain their business growth and momentum. Ambitious young professionals need to acquaint themselves with this technology if they want to go places,” he advises.
Quite obviously big data is a big deal.