Free Educational Resources for Essential Big Data Tools

Recently, in an effort to increase interest and understanding in emerging big data tools, some of the most influential companies in the data analytics space have been offering free training and certification programs. Whether you're interested in mastering Hadoop, Apache Spark, Apache Drill or other tools, you can find free education that won't create huge time demands.

In this post, you'll find some of the best free educational resources in the big data arena.

MapR Technologies, focused on Hadoop, has a whole curriculum of free training offerings for not just Hadoop, but Apache Drill and more. “We’ve had great momentum since we launched this training program in late January validating the demand for comprehensive Hadoop training delivered in a format that is convenient, flexible and available from anywhere at any time,” said Dave Jespersen, vice president, worldwide services, at MapR Technologies. “The big data market continues to be one that allows people to command the highest average salaries and we believe that this initiative will be a big value-add for developers, analysts and administrators.”

Recently, MapR has added to its curriculum with courses covering Apache HBase and Apache Drill. Curriculum includes data modeling and schema design, as well as use-case-driven learning for data analysts in Drill. 

When we interviewed MapR's Tomer Shiran, he said:

"There is a shortage of trained big data technology and analytics experts. Labor supply constraint is a key inhibitor of adoption and use of big data technologies. Current training offerings in the marketplace do not meet the cost, convenience and flexibility needs of today’s professionals. In-person training incurs significant costs, travel, and a big contiguous block of committed time. This is why we launched free on-demand Hadoop training last month. MapR wants to enable individuals to get trained on valuable skills and increase big data adoption in the market."

You can visit here to see MapR's full list of courses, look for updates and sign up  for the free Hadoop On-Demand Training Program. 

Additionally, Cloudera is now offering a set of hands-on Spark education courses targeted to provide developers, analysts and data scientists with skills necessary to deploy and leverage Spark in Hadoop environments.

"Cloudera is the only Hadoop distribution vendor offering an array of in-depth, real-world Spark training courses," said Mark Morrissey, senior director, Education Services, Cloudera. "Our goal is to teach users how to use Spark alongside other resources they have available in their Hadoop clusters. Whether people are new to Hadoop or have some exposure to it, our curriculum provides an entry point which sets them up for success and helps them to become more resilient as their environment of tools change."

You can find out much more here.