The big world of technological innovation has bigdata at its forefront at the moment. Big Data Applications can be written in various different languages, one of them being Scala. Scala is gaining prominence as the language of choice for developers and has been compared to Java, Python and R.

As is the case with every new big shift in the technology industry, Scala has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let us take a moment to explore how Scala came into being and how it will impact the future of bigdata applications.

Past

About 15 years ago, Martin Odersky created Scala, a development language that was created for big-data, long before the big data craze hit the market. Odersky also created Typesafe, several years after creating Scala. Typesafe was created to provide commercial support to Scala, along the lines of that provided by Oracle and Microsoft to Java and .NET.

Present

Scala has been widely used to create applications for the Web 2.0 and for the backend management for various social media platforms including Foursquare as well as Twitter. The switch from Rudy to Scala by such big players in the big data market herald a significant change in the market.

Gemini Solution provides big-data solutions to customers in the Solicon Valley. A current project of theirs includes using Scala to create a platform that collects, analyses and creates reports based on data form various types of wearable techs. According to the CEO of the company, Theo Nissim, “We like to play with technologies that are evolving and new and have potential,” he says. We think the tool is maturing is excellent, and because it couples very well with all kinds of big data infrastructures, the Sparks of the world.  It couples very well with them, and it just lends itself very well to the big data manipulations.”
It is obvious that Scala is slowly becoming the go-to language for creating bigdata pipelines to be used in applications all over the web.

Future

As rosy as Scala’s future sounds, there are still multiple hurdle to overcome, if Scala programming language is to become the number one programming language, beating the likes of Python and Java. First and foremost, the lack of commercial support, despite the Typesafe’s backing, is holding Scala back from becoming a mainstream language.

Competing with already established developing languages that have been used for years, Scala also has to take into consideration the constant improvement being made in these languages. They already have an established base in programmers and developers who have used it for years. An example is the new improvements in Java, which have bridged the gap between Scala and itself to be used as a development language in Apache Spark.

Every new technological creation faces its own set of hurdles. Scala’s biggest hurdles lie in the competition from other development languages. Even as Scala is gaining prominence, other languages continue to improve. However, the advantages Scala provides in terms of speed and excessiveness far outweighs this advantage. It is left to see how the seasoned and new development language battle it out in the world of bigdata.

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Spark – Set to Make Waves in The World of Big Data
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Apache Spark and Scala – Why Scala with Spark!