While Java’s been around for a little over 20 years, Big Data has only been a buzzword in corporate environments for a little over 5 years. While the concept has existed much longer than that, the majority of us hadn’t heard the word. Because it’s so new to so many of us, the term “Big Data” is still evolving, and can mean different things to different people.
To most people, the term describes any voluminous amount of structure data that can be used, mined, or better understood for information or intentional use.
“The rate at which we’re generating data is rapidly outpacing our ability to analyze it,” Professor Patrick Wolfe, Executive Director of the University College of London’s Big Data Institute, tells Business Insider. “The trick here is to turn these massive data streams from a liability into a strength.”
According to Antonio Regalado, Senior Editor for the MIT Technology Review, because of the sheer volume of data being being created, only about 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed. With this problem in mind, it’s no wonder developers are working around the clock to increase our computation capacity to understand and translate this vast amount of data into actionable insight.
With the amount of data we produce projected to continue its torrid, exponential growth, the need to analyze that vast amount of data will only continue to increase as well.
The gold standard in batch computational computing power to this point has been Hadoop, a free, java-based programming framework sponsored by the Apache Software Foundation that’s capable of processing large amount of data sets. With the past predicated on Java, it’s no wonder Java is expected to be the gold standard of big data and the Internet of Things for the foreseeable future.
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The big guys are turning to Java
When Facebook speaks, the rest of the tech community listens. Running with the likes of Apple, and Google, Facebook has been on the main-stage of technology development for over ten years. In a recent statement about the future of their mobile app, Facebook has completely ruled out a return to HTML5, and is dedicating their future to its own Reactive Native, JavaScript framework.
Originally reported by The Register, Facebook’s Director of Developer Infrastructure, David Mortenson, said the company will focus its mobile application development exclusively on the open-source React Native JavaScript Framework.
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3 Great collection of open source libraries
With its roots deeply engrained in open-source communities, a huge benefit to using Java is the amount of publicly available code that already exists. Companies like Apache, Google and other industry giants have even contributed to these vast libraries of code and information. With the amount of readily available code for use by anyone who needs to use it, the Internet of Things’ early development will benefit greatly from this already vast expanse of information and knowledge.
It’s never a bad idea to search for a functionality code in Google, before writing it for yourself. After 20 years, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s already coded, tested and available for use.
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Java is everywhere already
Java’s already on desktop, mobile, tablet, PC and Mac, and so are the programmers and developers who make it happen. Not only that, there’s also surging popularity in learning how to code Java. This abundance of information and thirst for learning it is why a lot of organizations prefer to choose Java for the development of apps over any other language.
Its relevancy on every platform combined with the abundance of open-source code Java currently available makes Java one of the most in-demand skills now, and in the future.
The future of data analysis is, unequivocally, Java.
