OStatic Blog New Options for Valuable Hadoop and Spark Training

Metis, which bills itself as "an accredited intensive data science bootcamp," is steadily moving forward with its big data processing courses, which teach students how to work with Hadoop and Spark, two of today's most widely used distributed computing paradigms. As we've reported, enterprises are finding tools like Hadoop hard to work with. Gartner, Inc.'s Hadoop Adoption Study, involving 284 Gartner Research Circle members, found that only 125 respondents who completed the whole survey had already invested in Hadoop or had plans to do so within the next two years. The study found that there are difficulties in implementing Hadoop.In the Metis courses, both Hadoop and Spark are run off of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud service, as knowledge of AWS is a data science skill set increasingly sought after by employers. Here are more details.In the first section of the Metis courses, students learn and discuss key Hadoop concepts such as the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and MapReduce, which are ways to organize files and directories. In the second half of the course, students will learn Spark basics such as Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs), and then advance to more sophisticated topics such as Spark for machine learning and Spark streaming, essentially real-time processing. Upon completion of the course, Metis claims that students will have an understanding of when to use distributed computing paradigms, Hadoop and Spark, comfort writing Hadoop and Spark applications in Python -- a versatile programming language -- familiarity with the Hadoop and Spark ecosystems, and the various tools that come with the distributions. "Breaking down big data is increasingly important to businesses trying to better understand their customers and improve their performance, and the employees who can help do this will continue to be in high demand," said Jason Moss, co-founder and general manager of Metis. "As the need for data scientists grows, Metis is excited to continue delivering new course offerings to provide industry professionals with the skills needed to help them succeed." According to Forbes, the demand for computer system analysts who have experience with big data increased by almost 90 percent over the past several years, making it one of America's fastest growing job categories.We've also covered a number of other options for Hadoop and Spark training, as follows:With its sights set on making Hadoop training for developers and administrators easy to complete, Hadoop distribution provider MapR Technologies has unveiled several free on-demand training offerings. You can visit here to see the full list of courses, certifications and to sign up for free classes. MapR's leaders are wrapping Spark into the teaching curriculum as well. When we launched these free on-demand courses, we set an ambitious enrollment goal of 10,000 students, which is estimated to be a $50 million in-kind contribution to the open source community," said Suzanne Ferry, vice president of global education and training, MapR Technologies. "With a response fives times over original projections, the On-Demand Training offerings are updated continually to address new technologies, like Spark, which in turn helps meet the ongoing skill development interests of company employees, industry consultants, and individuals. Our comprehensive online curriculum is driving the emergence of a strong community in support of the latest advancements in big data technologies."Cloudera also has an expanded Apache Spark training curriculum, although many of its classes are available for small fees. For more information about the courses on Spark and to register for a class, visit university.cloudera.com.These training programs promise to make a difference. According to Nick Heudecker and Lisa Kart, research directors, Gartner Inc., "As more organizations invest in big data, the shortage of available skills and capabilities will become more acute. Instead of facing a difficult recruiting market, organizations should focus on adapting available skills and engaging with established service providers to fill the skills gap." Related ActivitiesComments (0)Post a CommentAsk a QuestionRelated Blog PostsGuest Post: Databricks Leaders on Today's Real Time Analytics Challenges (1 comment)Huge Growth Expected for OpenStack and Hadoop, Despite Skills Gap (post comment)IBM's Spark-Driven Data Science Experience Cozies Up to GitHub (post comment)