Big Data Showdown: Spark vs. MBrace on Azure

Apache Spark ( http://spark.apache.org/ ) was designed to be 'a fast and general engine for large-scale data processing', and is enjoying tremendous popularity in the big data area. {MBrace} ( http://mbrace.io/ ), its younger and lesser-known sibling, was similarly built for 'scalable cloud data scripting and programming with F# and C#'.

So... which one is bigger, better, faster?

Come to this session to find out! We will execute comparable tasks on both Spark and MBrace against Azure clusters, running live-code interactively, comparing and contrasting the general programming model for both frameworks, as well as the performance executing these tasks.
At the end of this session, you will walk away with an opinion (your own, of course) on which framework is a better fit for your big data/big compute needs on Azure.

About the speakers:
Mathias Brandewinder has been developing software for about 10 years, and loving every minute of it, except maybe for a few release days. His language of choice was C#, until he discovered F# and fell in love with it. He enjoys arguing about code and how to make it better, and gets very excited when discussing TDD or functional programming. His other professional interests include machine learning and applied math. Mathias is a Microsoft F# MVP and the founder of Clear Lines Consulting. He is based in San Francisco, blogs at http://www.clear-lines.com/blog, and can be found on Twitter as @brandewinder. He's the author of "Machine Learning Project for .NET Developers" (Apress).

Eugene Chuvyrov is a Cloud Solutions Architect with Microsoft based in San Francisco, where he works with startups and established companies helping them optimize compute and data workloads with the help of Microsoft Cloud. His personal opinions can be found on Twitter, where he posts as @EugeneChuvyrov. Although Machine Learning is his passion, he's convinced that AI will not turn into Skynet but reserves the right to delete this statement should that actually happen.

Note About Superbowl-related Activities

Starting Saturday, January 30th through Friday, February 12th, Super Bowl 50 Host Committee has events planned stretching from Super Bowl City at Justin Herman Plaza, to the NFL Experience at the Moscone Center. Pedestrian congestion, road closures, and vehicle reroutes are expected.

As you can imagine, this will significantly impact travel to and from the Reactor, as we are very close to the Moscone Center.

We strongly recommend all Reactor visitors walk, bike, or take public transit (BART, Muni, CalTrain all arrive very close to our location). Parking will be extremely limited. Below are a list of garages in the area, but we can’t guarantee they will have space available.

· Fifth & Mission Parking Garage (http://www.fifthandmission.com/about.htm)
833 Mission Street (between Fourth & Fifth streets, adjacent to Moscone West)
(415) 982-8522 x18

· Hearst Parking Center (http://www.cityparksf.com/parkingmap.html)
45 Third Street (45 Third Street (entrance on Stevenson, 2 blocks from Moscone South/North)
(415) 989-4000

· Moscone Center Garage (http://www.sfmta.com/cms/pgar/MosconeCenterGarageRates.htm)
255 Third Street (Folsom & Howard, across the street from Moscone South's Esplanade Ballroom)
(415) 777-2782 (garage)
(415) 538-7888 (office)

· Museum Parc Garage (http://www.cityparksf.com/parkingmap.html)
300 Third Street (entrance on Third and on Folsom streets)
(415) 348-0304

For the latest traffic information please visit: TMASF - Super Bowl Overview (http://www.tmasfconnects.org/news-info/super-bowl-overview/)