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I want to learn Cloud Computing and Big Data at home.

  1. Is it possible to learn these technologies on home PC?
  2. Which technologies to learn in Cloud Computing?
  3. Which technologies to learn Big Data (Hadoop)?
Coral Doe
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RPK
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    "Which...to learn"type of questions should lead to the answer "learn them all". You have to have an objective for learning something. What is your objective? That is learn to do what with it? All will change in 2 years time, so have a goal. – NoChance Jul 04 '12 at 09:09
  • I am very new and "learn-them-all" seems to be an impossible goal. Primary objective is building SaaS applications. – RPK Jul 05 '12 at 06:53
  • Seems like a basic architecture question which the answer is always evaluate the architecture that best suits the project. Far too vague an possibly even off topic of the grounds of "Which X is best" or "What X to learn next". – Rig Dec 08 '12 at 18:01

4 Answers4

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Is it possible to learn these technologies on home PC?

Yes. For instance, you can work bith Google AppEngine's SDK entirely offline.

Google Code University also provides some starter courses and tutorials on Distributed and Cloud Computing.

Which technologies to learn in Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing encompasses many things (ass buzzwords often do...).

Cloud Computing

You need to understand its core characteristics, its different service models and deployment models, and all the issues and troubles it comes bundled with and that need mitigation (the downside of buzzwords, is that it makes the greater public worry about stuff).

Cloud Computing Service Models

Once that's done, you can start experimenting with different software actors of the Cloud's landscape, and major providers like Google AppEngine (and Google's integrated services), Amazon AWS, Windows Azure, Heroku or CloundFoundry.

Which technologies to learn Big Data (Hadoop)?

The Wikipedia entry on Big Data's Technologies gives a (long-ish) list of pre-requisites, but if you wanted to be pointed at frameworks, then look at:

View also:

Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.

haylem
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  • I want to build initially SaaS applications and my experience is in .NET. Both, Google App. Engine and Heorku, don't include support for .NET. Which other framework is more widely used, Rails or Django? – RPK Jul 08 '12 at 09:35
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    @RPK: Look at Windows Azure for .NET. For your next questions, it depends on the market, but according to [Indeed](http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=django%2C+rails&l=) and [Google Trends](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=django,+rails) Rails is the clear winner (though both report a decreasing trend in recent months). – haylem Jul 08 '12 at 09:38
  • @RPK: Have you looked at AppHarbor? (https://appharbor.com/) – Matthew King Jul 19 '12 at 06:55
  • @Joviee Yes seen. – RPK Jul 19 '12 at 07:09
  • "ass buzzwords often do"? :) – Alvin Oct 23 '13 at 00:24
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Cloud computing by definition can be learned anywhere. Just signup for one of the free tiers and learn how to start it, expand it, reconfigure it. Discover what prepackaged software and tools can by loaded, setup, used and then discarded. And when you done trash the server and start again.

Tom Squires
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mhoran_psprep
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Since you are a .NET guy, you can go with the Windows Azure. You can start building applications at your home PC itself using the tools which you are familiar with (Visual Studio etc). For deploying in Windows Azure, you will be coding your app, running it locally and if everything working fine, you can push that to cloud.

Windows Azure has some subscriptions where you will get some free benefits. Check the Windows Azure 90 day free trial. Also, if you have an MSDN subscription, you can get free Azure benefits. An MSDN Visual Studio Ultimate subscriber is entitled to up to 3700$ worth of Azure benefits every month.

If you are looking for a basic cloud computing course, you may consider EXIN Cloud Computing foundation certification course as well.

BigData:

Here is a great FREE resource to start with BigData: http://bigdatauniversity.com/

Note: If you would like to learn more about cloud computing/ BigData etc, register at GetCloudCertified.com (URL given below). We will be launching our website by early 2013. Feel free to follow us on Twitter and FB for the time being for more details.

Cheers! GetCloud http://getcloudcertified.com

GetCloud
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Www.coursera.org offers free online courses. There are courses for Big Data and Cloud for health Servies available.

To answer the Op questions:

  1. Yes you can learn it from your home PC. You simply need a PC with a web browser for consuming the learning materials. Depending on the course itself other software for installation may e required.

As for 2 and 3 I think to get started with the technologies like Cloud or "Big Data" it's good to have a nice example domain where you can alloy those. And I think medical and healthcare are a very rapidly growing branch in need of those.

AndreasScheinert
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