BIG DATA ENGINEERING AND DATA ANALYTICS

Big Data Engineering is one of the essential tasks for any data-driven
organization to gain an edge over its competitors. With the increasing
trend of data generation across the world, managing information has
become a challenging task for organizations. Analyzing Big Data is not a
straightforward process of collecting, storing, and processing data.

It requires sophisticated tools, the right experts, and complex algorithms.

To ensure organizations harness the power of data, there is a need for
Big Data Engineering. Companies employ Big Data Engineers to manage
Big Data, which could become foundational for Data Science initiatives.

Without Big Data Engineering, companies will struggle to develop a data

culture that would hinder their overall business operations. In this article,
you will learn about what is Big Data Engineering, what are the steps
involved, the skills required, the role of a Data Engineer, and how they are
different from Data Analysts and Data Scientists.

What is Big Data?

A colossal amount of information is called Big Data. Since the digital
revolution, the world has witnessed an increase in the number of data
generation sources. This has led to the collection of a plethora of data.
Over the years, data collection was mostly a manual process, where
professionals used to enter values into spreadsheets.

This resulted in a collection of Structured Data that mainly consisted of

numbers and short text. However, due to the proliferation of digital
products, data collection has become automatic, at least with individual
digital solutions.

Today, every digital product has its own database that assists in collecting
and processing data automatically. But, integrating different data sources
still does not happen out of the box. APIs are required to request data and
collect it at a single location to further process information and perform
data analyses.
While it is easier to collect data from different sources that allow access
through APIs, massive amounts of data are present on several portals that
would require web scrapping to gather information. Screen scraping is
performed to collect data from public sources to enrich data for better
profiling or to enhance insights generation, leading to more data within
organizations.

Since data comes from different sources and are of different types, i.e.,
Structured and Unstructured data, organizations have to deploy various
techniques to address their challenges.

What is Big Data Engineering?

Data collected from different sources are in a raw format, i.e., usually in a
form that is not fit for Data Analysis. The idea behind what is Big Data
Engineering is not only to collect Big Data but also to transform and store
it in a dedicated database that can support insights generation or the
creation of Machine Learning-based solutions.

Data Engineers are the force behind Data Engineering that is focused on
gathering information from disparate sources, transforming the data,
devising schemas, storing data, and managing its flow.

Simplify ETL Using Hevo’s No-code Data Pipeline

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consistent. Hevo provides you with a truly efficient and fully-automated
solution to manage data in real-time and always have analysis-ready data.
Let’s look at Some Salient Features of Hevo:
• Secure: Hevo has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the
data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
• Schema Management: Hevo takes away the tedious task of
schema management & automatically detects the schema of
incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
• Minimal Learning: Hevo, with its simple and interactive UI, is
extremely simple for new customers to work on and perform
operations.
• Hevo Is Built To Scale: As the number of sources and the volume
of your data grows, Hevo scales horizontally, handling millions of
records per minute with very little latency.
• Incremental Data Load: Hevo allows the transfer of data that has
been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of
bandwidth on both ends.
• Live Support: The Hevo team is available round the clock to extend
exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and
support calls.
• Live Monitoring: Hevo allows you to monitor the data flow and
check where your data is at a particular point in time.

Steps Involved in Big Data Engineering

Now that you have understood what is Big Data Engineering. Let’s read
more about the steps involved in it. Big Data Engineering is a strenuous
process that involves a lot of effort since data requirements within
organizations can change and hence the data handling process. However,
there are a few standard processes that are essential for any Big Data
Engineering initiatives, which are as follows:

• Data Collection: Data collection is carried out to gather relevant

information for catering to business needs. Before starting the
collection of data, there is a need to assimilate business
requirements. Once the data need is defined, Data Engineers
integrate internal and external data sources to accumulate
necessary information.
 • Data Lake Storage: It is a data pool that stores different types of
data — Structured or Unstructured — in a raw form. Several data
sources are integrated with Data Lakes to aggregate information for
simplifying the further process of Data Engineering. A Data Lake is
a cornerstone for any data-driven company that works with Big Data.
• ETL: It stands for Extract, Transform, and Load. The primary
objective of ETL is to extract data from a Data Lake or other data
sources, then transform it into different analytics-ready forms, and
load it into a Data Warehouse. The transformation in ETL includes
data discovery, mapping, code generation, execution, and data
review.

ETL is one of the most crucial steps involved in Big Data

Engineering, which assists in converting the raw data into
meaningful ways by enhancing the quality of information. The
effectiveness of insights garnered through data analyses can be
highly correlated with how well an ETL is performed.
• Data Warehousing: After Data Transformation through ETL
practices, the data is stored in a Data Warehouse, a data
management system that enables data analysis with Structured or
Semi-structured data. Data Warehouse accelerates analytics with
faster throughput of queries, allowing companies to process a vast
amount of data for uncovering insights quickly.
Over the years, Cloud-based Data Warehouses like Amazon
Redshift have evolved to offer better caching and querying directly
into the AWS S3 Data Lake to expedite analytics workflows.
• Data Management: Big Data often leads to Data Silos without
proper Data Management. Data Silos are data storage that has
been ideal for a more extended period of time. Usually, the rate at
which data is analysed is lesser than the rate at which information
is collected. Consequently, a lot of data is left unanalysed due to a
lack of Data Management.

Data Engineers are also responsible for overseeing how data is being
used and devising new ways to avoid Data Silos. While Data Silos are one
aspect of Data Management, controlling access to information is another
essential part of Data Management.
To comply with the new data privacy regulations and avoid data breaches,
Data Engineers implement best practices to control the access of
information across organizations.

Skills Required For Big Data Engineering

Does the first question arise what are Big Data Engineering requirements?
It requires the execution of various tasks, it is a skill-intensive process. As
a Data Engineer, you will need to master the following:

• Data Structure: Although the reliance on Structured Data is still

prominent among companies, the trend of generating insights from
Unstructured Data has been gaining prominence. Data Engineers
need to handle different data types to ensure companies accomplish
their objectives with both types of data.
While Data Warehousing helps in fulfilling the requirements for
Structured Data, Unstructured Data is directly queried by Data
Scientists from Data Lakes. Data Engineers should organize
Unstructured Data in a way that is easy to locate within Data Lakes
for further analysis.
• SQL: Structured Query Language (SQL) is probably the most widely
used tool for reading and writing information into databases. With
SQL, Data Engineers can connect with almost every Relational
Database to extract and load data efficiently. SQL also assists in
creating the desired schema that would accelerate data handling
processes for different business-critical tasks.
Since Data Engineering involves working with numerous databases,
SQL has become an essential language for simplifying Big Data
Engineering tasks.
• Python: Data Engineers are responsible for cleaning data to
remove outliers and unknown characters, split information, enhance
data, and other complex tasks. Python is the most popular
programming language for Big Data Engineering, Data Science, and
Data Analysis.
In other words, Python is a must for any data-related tasks. Being
proficient in Python programming can simplify several Big Data
 Engineering tasks with the help of libraries like Pandas, NumPy,
Matplotlib, etc.
• Big Data Tools: Traditional Data Handling techniques failed to
process Big Data since it requires the support of extensive
computation and performance speed. As a result, several Big Data
tools were introduced, such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark,
Apache Kafka, etc.
These Open-Source solutions allow Data Engineers to streamline
the storage and processing of Big Data with concurrent processing
and fault tolerance.
• Data Pipelines: Creating robust Data Pipelines is the most critical
task of Data Engineers. Data Pipelines are created to ensure the
best ETL practices for storing Structured Data in Data Warehouses
and model development with Unstructured Data. Especially in big
tech companies, professionals are required to create numerous
Data Pipelines for different business initiatives.
Data Pipelines expedited the entire analytics workflow to transform
data from one representation to another. It is also used in real-time
analytics for quicker decision-making, making it the most vital skill
in Data Engineering.
• Data Modelling: Data stored in databases have different data
models to support a variety of business processes. As a Data
Engineer, you should understand data models to effectively pull
information and store it in either a Data Lake or Data Warehouse.
Analytics requires a different model altogether; as a result, Data
Engineers should model data in a way that is suitable for analytics.
One of the widely used data models for analytics is dimensional
modelling, which includes Star or Snowflake schema.

How Big Data has Evolved to Data Engineering?

Data Management is the most vital factor for Data Analytics. The huge
volumes of data are generated at a rapid rate and it is becoming harder
to manage the complex data with traditional technologies such as
Hadoop, MapReduce, Yarn, HDFS, etc. These are some of the widely
used technologies that offered companies a scalable solution to manage
high volumes of data. But the requirements to handle modern applications
and complex is not possible with these traditional technologies.
The adoption of Cloud technologies such as Spark, Kafka, serverless, etc.
has delivered a significant boost to businesses. These are the perfect
tools developed to satisfy all the Data Engineering needs of a business.
The uncoupling of storage and the compute delivered faster query
performance and can manage the processing of multi-latency petabyte-
scale data with auto-scaling and auto-tuning.

Cloud is one of the biggest disruptors o Big Data as it enabled the

separation of storage and computation parts making it easier for users to
scale up or scale down the servers according to the business
requirements. It also helps companies cut down the cost of processing
data engineering pipelines at scale.

Spark is a distributed processing engine that can help users manage the
petabyte-scale of data for Big Data Engineering and enable the use of
Machine Learning and Data Analytics. Spark can deliver 100x more speed
than Hadoop for Data processing.

Kafka is a data streaming platform that can handle trillions of events a

day and is widely used for messaging queues to a full-fledged event
streaming tech.

Heavy adoption of these technologies by prominent providers such as

Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Databricks furthered
the evolution of Big Data to Data Engineering.

Need of the Data Engineer

Data Engineers are responsible to make data available to Data Scientists
and Data Analysts to find the right data and make sure that the data is
trusted and in the right format. They also mask the sensitive data to keep
the data protected. Data Engineers exactly know what is Big Data
Engineering and try to optimize and restructure the data as per the
business requirements so that they spend less time on data preparation,
and operationalize data engineering pipelines.

Data Engineers play an important role in Data Analytics, and it designs

and builds the environment necessary for Analytics.
7 Important Capabilities of Data Engineering
As companies came to know about the importance of what is Big Data
Engineering. Instead of using the old methods to get better results and
growth, companies shifted towards AI-driven approaches for end-to-end
Data Engineering.

• Data Engineers create the Data Pipelines using enterprise-level

Data Integration.
• Data Engineering helps in identifying the right dataset with an
intelligent data catalogue..
• Mask sensitive information such as bank details, card numbers,
passwords, etc.
• Simplifies the data preparation task and allows companies to
collaborate with data.

Data engineering User Personas

Though Cloud technologies are an important factor in the Data
Engineering process, Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and Data Analysts
are illustrative user personas of Data Engineering. Data Engineering
serves a wide variety of fields such as Sales, Finance, Marketing, Supply
Chain, etc. These all fields raise many questions to explore about data
such as:

• How can data help me predict what will happen?

• How can data help me understand what has happened?
• How can my staff collaborate better and prepare data more easily?

Whereas, Data Analysts analyze the business data provided by Data

Engineers to explore and generate insights from it. They ask the following
questions about the data:

• How to know if the data is trusted?

• How to simplify the data preparation and spend more time on
analysis?
• How to collaborate with other teams?
• How will I make this data available in my Data Lake?
Also, Data Scientists spend around 80% of their time preparing the data
as compared to building the models. They often ask questions such as:

• How to ensure the data is trusted for modelling?

• How to simplify the data preparation and spend more time on
modelling?
• How can I deploy and operationalize my ML models into
production?

Why Data Engineering is Important to AI and

Analytics Success?
Many AI projects fail due to the lack of correct data. Though, companies
put huge investments in managing data and Analytics but still they face
difficulties in bringing data into production. Data users spend 80% of the
time preparing data before they can use it for analysis or modelling. Clean
data is a common need for all purposes and it is the single most important
factor of Data Engineering.

Conclusion
In this article, you learned about what is Big Data Engineering and how it
is a crucial part of any data-driven organization that is trying to gain an
edge over its competitors. Without proper Data Engineering efforts,
companies would witness failure in projects, leading to substantial
financial losses. This article provided you with an in-depth understanding
of what Big Data Engineering is along with a list of steps and skills involved
in an ideal Big Data Engineering process.

Most businesses today, however, have an extremely high volume of data

with a dynamic structure. Creating a Data Pipeline from scratch for such
data is a complex process since businesses will have to utilize a high
amount of resources to develop it and then ensure that it can keep up with
the increased data volume and Schema variations. Businesses can
instead use automated platforms like Hevo.
What Does a Big Data Engineer Do?

Before delving into what big data engineers do, it is important to

understand what big data is. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), big data is the collection and analysis of information that
organizations are generating at unprecedented scales. Much of the data
comes from such sources as e-commerce, smartphones, and social
media — all of which are relatively new technologies.

Big data as a research discipline is still evolving. As a result, classification

and comprehensible understanding of the phenomenon remain elusive.
Big data has the potential to predict market fluctuations, industry shifts,
and other trends with unprecedented accuracy. Using big data means
seeing beyond just a few immediate data points — it’s about taking in the
bigger picture based on a much wider range of data.

This near-constant stream of data must be managed by someone who

can interpret the information and produce actionable insights. This is the
job of big data engineers — also known as data scientists, statisticians,
and computer and information research scientists.

What a big data engineer does is complete many different tasks using skills
drawn from many areas. For example, they may be responsible for the
following tasks:

• Work with data architects and IT teams on formulating project goals

• Build highly scalable data management systems from the design
phase to completion
• Design top-tier algorithms, predictive models, and prototypes
• Create data set processes to be used for data modeling, mining, and
production
• Develop custom analytics apps and other kinds of software
• Ensure that data systems meet specific requirements
• Oversee disaster recovery preparations
• Research improvements to data quality, reliability, and efficiency
 • Look for data acquisition opportunities as well as new uses for
existing data and tools
Those interested in becoming a big data engineer can prepare by
developing problem-solving skills and gaining database and data
integration knowledge. Some of the most difficult tasks assigned to big
data engineers pertain to sorting through chaotic, unorganized sets of data
from many different sources and in as many different formats. Big data
engineers aim to turn that messy information into clean, accurate, and
actionable data — understandable to anyone receiving reports based on
the information.

Steps to Become a Big Data Engineer

The professional path to become a big data engineer involves education,

work experience, and optional certifications. Each step of the way,
engineers can sharpen their skills and knowledge, potentially boosting
their chances of getting hired.

Step 1: Education

The first step toward becoming a big data engineer is fostering an interest
in computer science, math, physics, statistics, or computer engineering.
These subjects are usually introduced in high school and expanded upon
in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Big data engineers hold at
least a bachelor’s degree, with most also having an advanced degree, such
as an online master’s in business data analytics.
The added years of study are crucial for learning the myriad technical skills
that a big data engineer needs. The advantages of having a master’s degree
include gaining advanced analytical and software engineering expertise in
such areas as database principles, data visualization, business data
analytics, data mining, and forecasting and predictive modelling.
Here are some of the technical areas in which
professionals may need to be proficient to advance
in this career:
• Database architectures
• SQL, including PostgreSQL and MySQL
• Data modelling tools such as Erwin and Enterprise Architect
• MatLab, SAS, and R statistical programs for machine learning
• Algorithms for predictive modelling, natural language processing
(NLP), and text analysis
• Statistical modelling and analysis
• Business analytics and intelligence using cloud computing tools such
as Microsoft PowerBI and Azure
• Hadoop’s MapReduce compiled language, Hive query language, and
Apache Pig scripting language
• NoSQL databases, such as Cassandra and MongoDB
• Programming languages: Python, R programming, C/C++, Java, and
Perl
• UNIX, MS Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.

Step 2: Work Experience

Gaining work experience, even while earning an advanced degree, can help
students develop the capabilities a big data engineer needs to succeed:
communication, problem-solving, analytical skills, critical thinking, logical
thinking, and attention to detail.

IT professionals looking to grow into a big data engineer role must also
hone additional skills outside of the classroom. These interpersonal and
business skills include the ability to collaborate, a curiosity to continue
learning, and an enthusiasm for finding creative solutions to complex
challenges.
Step 3: Certification (Optional)

There is another step to consider before applying to big data engineering

positions — certifications. Professionals may stand out from their
competitors and become more appealing to employers by attaining
certifications that demonstrate their proficiency in key skills. Some
certifications require having an advanced degree, while others have no
special prerequisites. Big data scientists may seek the following
professional certifications:

• Cloudera Certified Professional (CCP) Data Engineer. Cloudera

certifies professionals in the following skills: data analysis, workflow
development, data ingestions, data staging and storage, and
transformation. The certification exam takes four hours to complete
and costs $400. There are no prerequisites required.
• Certified Big Data Professional (CBDP). The CBDP certification
focuses on testing for proficiency in data science and data business
intelligence. The Institute for Certification of Computing
Professionals developed this certification, the cost of which varies
based on the level of the test. Depending on the level of certification,
candidates are required to have at least one year of technical
experience and a BA degree.
• Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer. The Google
Cloud certification tests proficiency in building data structures,
designing data systems and analyzing and designing for machine
learning, reliability, security, and compliance. This certification exam
takes two hours to complete and costs $200. There are no
prerequisites required.

Big Data Engineer Salaries

The BLS doesn’t collect information on big data scientists. Instead, it cites
similar jobs, such as statistician, mathematician, and computer and
information research scientist. Here are just a few BLS figures from May
2017 that are representative of big data engineer salaries:
 • Statisticians earn a median annual wage of $84,060.
•Computer and information research scientists earn a median annual
wage of $114,520.
PayScale shares the following big data engineer pay points:

• Big data engineers report salaries in the range of $66,000 to

$130,000, with an average annual salary of $89,838.
• Data scientist median annual salaries range from $63,000 to
$129,000 and average $91,784.
These big data engineer salaries are largely dependent upon levels of
education and experience: professionals holding master’s or doctoral
degrees and/or possessing extensive experience earn more than their
less-qualified counterparts. As professionals gain more knowledge and
experience, their specialized skills will overlap, which makes their cross-
applicability immensely attractive to prospective employers.

Employment Outlook for Big Data Engineers

As previously mentioned, the BLS places big data engineers under the
categories of statisticians, computer programmers, and computer and
information research scientists. Here are growth projections for these
professions:

• The BLS predicts statistician positions will grow by 34 percent

between 2016 and 2026, which is much faster than the projected 7
percent average growth for all occupations in the U.S. in that period.
That translates to an added 12,600 new jobs available to qualified
professionals. Statisticians represent the seventh-fastest-growing
occupation in the U.S., according to the BLS.
• The BLS predicts computer and information research scientist jobs
will grow by 19 percent between 2016 and 2026, with an added
5,400 jobs.
Additional career sites also note the rapid growth predicted in the big data
engineer sector. For example, Glassdoor lists data scientist as the No. 1
best job in America for 2019, with an estimated 6,510 new openings and
a job satisfaction rating of 4.3 out of 5.
Applications of Data Analytics

• Healthcare

The main challenge for hospitals is to treat as many patients as

they efficiently can, while also providing a high. Instrument and
machine data are increasingly being used to track and optimize
patient flow, treatment, and equipment used in hospitals. It is
estimated that there will be a one percent efficiency gain that
could yield more than $63 billion in global healthcare savings by
leveraging software from data analytics companies.

• Travel

Data analytics can optimize the buying experience through

mobile/weblog and social media data analysis. Travel websites
can gain insights into the customer’s preferences. Products can
be upsold by correlating current sales to the subsequent browsing
increase in browse-to-buy conversions via customized packages
and offers. Data analytics that is based on social media data can
also deliver personalized travel recommendations.

• Gaming

Data analytics helps in collecting data to optimize and spend

within and across games. Gaming companies are also able to
learn more about what their users like and dislike.

• Energy Management

Most firms are using data analytics for energy management,

including smart-grid management, energy optimization, energy
distribution, and building automation in utility companies. The
application here is centred on the controlling and monitoring of
network devices and dispatch crews, as well as managing service
outages. Utilities have the ability to integrate millions of data
points in the network performance and gives engineers the
opportunity to use the analytics to monitor the network.