Apache Hadoop is a framework for big data. One of its main components is HDFS, Hadoop Distributed File System, which stores that data. You might expect that a storage framework that holds large quantities of data requires state-of-the-art infrastructure for a file system that does not fail, but quite the contrary is true.

Relational database management systems (RDBMS) store data in rows and columns. Most relational databases store data row-wise by default, but a few RDBMS provide the option to store data column-wise, which is a useful feature. Let’s look at the benefits of being able to use columnar storage for data and when you'd want to.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) are the two most common formats for data interchange. Although either can be used to receive data from a web server, there are differences that set them apart. Here are the abilities and support for each option so you can choose what works for you.