What is a Big Data cluster?
Very often I get the query `What is a cluster?` when discussing about Hadoop and Big Data. To keep it simple ` A cluster is a group or a network of machines wired together acting a single entity to work on a task which when run on a single machine takes much more longer time. ` The given task is split and processed by multiple machines in parallel and so that the task gets completed faster. Jesse Johnson puts it in simple and clear terms what a cluster is all about and how to design distributed algorithms here . In a Big Data cluster, the machines (or nodes) are neither as powerful as a server grade machine nor as dumb as a desktop machine. Having multiple (like in thousands) server grade ma...