Apache Spark is an open-source, distributed processing system that allows large amounts of data to be processed efficiently.
Spark solved several performance problems related to processing large datasets, making it the number one choice in the industry and a direct competitor of Hadoop.
Spark's strength is distributed computing, making it a champion for operations on large datasets.
Apache Spark’s architecture consists of three main components: the driver, the executor, and the partitioner. It utilises a manager/worker configuration, where a manager determines the number of worker nodes needed and how they should function.
Generally, Spark's advantage over Hadoop is speed. Spark is able to perform tasks up to 100 times faster than Hadoop, making it a great solution for low-latency processing use cases, such as machine learning.
Using Apache Spark on Kubernetes offers numerous advantages over other cluster resource managers, such as Apache YARN, including simplified deployment, management, and authentication.
Spark offers four main built-in libraries: Spark SQL, Spark Streaming, MLlib and GraphX, providing a large set of functionalities for different operations, such as data streaming, dataset handling, and machine learning.
Common use cases for Spark include processing large volumes of data, complex operations, scalability requirements, performance improvements for large datasets, and machine learning.
It is not always the case that Apache Spark and Hadoop are competing solutions and they can be used together depending on business needs.
Canonical’s Charmed Apache Spark on Kubernetes simplifies the deployment and management process, offering greater flexibility, performance, and ease of use, ensuring quick, reliable, and scalable data processing.