A research group must analyze several terabytes of sensor logs, which is far too large for one relational server to handle efficiently. They plan to spread the work across a cluster of machines using a distributed engine. What is this approach called?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Big data processing refers to analyzing datasets that are too large or complex for traditional databases, typically by distributing the work across many nodes with frameworks such as Apache Spark or Hadoop. Azure services like Synapse Spark pools, Azure Databricks, and HDInsight support that model. Transactional locking, message brokering, and index tuning are database or messaging techniques that do not describe distributing analysis across a cluster.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Transactional locking coordinates concurrent updates so that database rows stay consistent. It addresses concurrency control, not distributing large analytical workloads across machines.
- C. Message brokering passes messages between producers and consumers asynchronously. It does not split a large dataset into parts for parallel analysis.
- D. Index tuning adds or adjusts indexes to speed up specific queries on a database. It does not change how analysis of multi-terabyte logs is distributed.