Having written several detailed reviews of Oracle Press’ Oracle Big Data Handbook (links below) I thought it useful to produce a summary. Over all is a very insightful and informative book covering the range of technologies that Oracle offers to address the ‘Big Data’ space from a number of view points such hardware with the Big Data Appliance (BDA), software with NoSQL, Enterprise R and Hadoop along with the various adapters (e.g. ODI) and existing product features that existing products make available to support the big data story and contribute to make a cohesive ecosystem. The book looks beyond the technologies classically linked to the ‘Big Data’  term to explore products such as Endeca. I like the act that the book tries to explain the rational behind some of the approaches adopted and the associated value propositions. Finally book looks at governance, maturity and architectural capabilities. All of which makes for an informative and insightful book.

The book isn’t flawless a few challenges that can make the reading a little frustrating occasionally (at least for me as I went cover to cover), for example,looking at the Big Data Appliance we seem to revisit the hardware specifications multiple times. The data governance perspective is data governance not specific to big data in my opinion. Occasionally the book seems to jump about when explaining a number of related areas which means that using the book as more a reference isn’t so easy. Don’t get me wrong these issues are hugely out weighed by the value it brings.

my detailed reviews:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Oracle Big Data Handbook