Clustered computing

Before we take a further pe into big data, let us understand clustered computing. This is a set of computers connected to each other in such a way that they act as a single server to the end user. It can be configured to work with different characteristics that enable high availability, load balancing, and parallel processing. Each computer in these configurations is called a node. They work together to execute any task or application and behave as a single machine. The following diagram illustrates a computer cluster environment:

Illustration of a computer clustered environment

The volume of data is increasing, as we have already stated; it is now beyond the capabilities of a single computer to do the analysis all by itself. Clustered computing combines the resources of many smaller low — cost machines, to achieve many greater benefits. Some of them are listed here in the following sections