Preface

Apache Spark is the buzzword in the big data industry right now, especially with the increasing need for real-time streaming and data processing. While Spark is built on Scala, the Spark Java API exposes all the features of Spark available in the Scala version for Java developers. This book will show you how you can implement various functionalities of the Apache Spark framework in Java without stepping out of your comfort zone.

The book starts with an introduction to the Apache Spark 2.x ecosystem, followed by explaining how to install and configure Spark, and refreshes the concepts of Java that will be useful to you when consuming Apache Spark's APIs. You will explore RDD and its associated common Action and Transformation Java APIs, set up a production-like clustered environment, and work with Spark SQL. Moving on, you will perform near-real-time processing with Spark Streaming, machine learning analytics with Spark MLlib, and graph processing with GraphX, all using various Java packages.

By the end of the book, you will have a solid foundation in implementing the components of the Spark framework in Java to build fast, real-time applications.