As reported by ZDNet, Microsoft is developing an open source, distributed platform designed for the creation of cloud services and big data analytics called OneNet or Prajna. OneNet specializes in interactive, big data analytics and boasts in-memory processing functionality in ways that are similar to Apache Spark. Importantly, OneNet supports both batch processing and real-time, streaming data ingestion and analytics. Unlike Spark, however, the platform can deploy cloud platforms and access them via mobile applications and distributed applications featuring in-memory key-value stores. Prajna also claims distributed programming functionality across multiple clusters and in memory sharing of data across multiple jobs. Prajna’s ability to support “multi-cluster distributed programming” differentiates it from Spark and pushes the envelope with respect to high performance distributed computing in the industry today. OneNet/Prajna specializes in a distributing computing platform across multiple clusters that can be used to build high performance, big data analytic engines while reducing the engineering costs typically associated with building distributed systems. Microsoft’s investment in OneNet comes at a time when Cloudera has recently announced a One Platform Initiative aimed at rendering Apache Spark production-ready in the form of a viable alternative to MapReduce.
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