The big data system, components, tools, and technologies: a survey

Abstract

The traditional databases are not capable of handling unstructured data and high volumes of real-time datasets. Diverse datasets are unstructured lead to big data, and it is laborious to store, manage, process, analyze, visualize, and extract the useful insights from these datasets using traditional database approaches. However, many technical aspects exist in refining large heterogeneous datasets in the trend of big data. This paper aims to present a generalized view of complete big data system which includes several stages and key components of each stage in processing the big data. In particular, we compare and contrast various distributed file systems and MapReduce-supported NoSQL databases concerning certain parameters in data management process. Further, we present distinct distributed/cloud-based machine learning (ML) tools that play a key role to design, develop and deploy data models. The paper investigates case studies on distributed ML tools such as Mahout, Spark MLlib, and FlinkML. Further, we classify analytics based on the type of data, domain, and application. We distinguish various visualization tools pertaining three parameters: functionality, analysis capabilities, and supported development environment. Furthermore, we systematically investigate big data tools and technologies (Hadoop 3.0, Spark 2.3) including distributed/cloud-based stream processing tools in a comparative approach. Moreover, we discuss functionalities of several SQL Query tools on Hadoop based on 10 parameters. Finally, We present some critical points relevant to research directions and opportunities according to the current trend of big data. Investigating infrastructure tools for big data with recent developments provides a better understanding that how different tools and technologies apply to solve real-life applications.