Scalable end-user access to big data

This chapter proposes steps toward the solution to the data access problem that end-users typically face when dealing with Big Data: • They need to pose ad-hoc queries to a collection of data sources, possibly including streaming sources. • They are unable to query these sources on their own, but are dependent on assistance from IT experts. • The turnaround time for information requests is in the range of days, possibly weeks, due to the involvement of the IT personnel. • The volume, complexity, variety, and velocity of the underlying data sources put very high demands on the scalability of the solution.