Here is a brief tutorial for people to run R on Windows Azure Cloud (OS=Windows in this case , but there are 4 kinds of Linux also available)
There is a free 90 day trial so you can run R for free on the cloud for free (since Google Cloud Compute is still in closed hush hush beta)
Go to https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
Some slides I liked on cloud computing infrastructure as offered by Amazon, IBM, Google , Windows and Oracle
Just got the email-more software is good news!
Revolution R Enterprise 6.0 for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 5.x and RHEL 6.x) features an updated release of the RevoScaleR package that provides fast, scalable data management and data analysis: the same code scales from data frames to local, high-performance .xdf files to data distributed across a Windows HPC Server cluster or IBM Platform Computing LSF cluster. RevoScaleR also allows distribution of the execution of essentially any R function across cores and nodes, delivering the results back to the user.
Detailed information on what’s new in 6.0 and known issues:
http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/doc/README_RevoEnt_Windows_6.0.0.pdf
RevoScaleR high-performance analysis functions will now conveniently work directly with a variety of external data sources (delimited and fixed format text files, SAS files, SPSS files, and ODBC data connections). New functions are provided to create data source objects to represent these data sources (RxTextData, RxOdbcData, RxSasData, and RxSpssData), which in turn can be specified for the ‘data’ argument for these RevoScaleR analysis functions: rxHistogram, rxSummary, rxCube, rxCrossTabs, rxLinMod, rxCovCor, rxLogit, and rxGlm.
# Create a SAS data source with information about variables and # rows to read in each chunk
sasDataFile <- file.path(rxGetOption(“sampleDataDir”),”claims.sas7bdat”)
sasDS <- RxSasData(sasDataFile, stringsAsFactors = TRUE,colClasses = c(RowNum = “integer”),rowsPerRead = 50)
# Compute and draw a histogram directly from the SAS file
rxHistogram( ~cost|type, data = sasDS)
# Compute summary statistics
rxSummary(~., data = sasDS)
# Estimate a linear model
linModObj <- rxLinMod(cost~age + car_age + type, data = sasDS)
summary(linModObj)
# Import a subset into a data frame for further inspection
subData <- rxImport(inData = sasDS, rowSelection = cost > 400,
varsToKeep = c(“cost”, “age”, “type”))
subData
The installation instructions and instructions for getting started with Revolution R Enterprise & RevoDeployR for Windows: http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/downloads/instructions/windows.php
Events in the field of data that impacted us in 2011
1) Oracle unveiled plans for R Enterprise. This is one of the strongest statements of its focus on in-database analytics. Oracle also unveiled plans for a Public Cloud
2) SAS Institute released version 9.3 , a major analytics software in industry use.
3) IBM acquired many companies in analytics and high tech. Again.However the expected benefits from Cognos-SPSS integration are yet to show a spectacular change in market share.
2011 Selected acquisitions
Emptoris Inc. December 2011
Cúram Software Ltd. December 2011
DemandTec December 2011
Platform Computing October 2011
Q1 Labs October 2011Algorithmics September 2011
i2 August 2011
Tririga March 2011
4) SAP promised a lot with SAP HANA- again no major oohs and ahs in terms of market share fluctuations within analytics.
http://www.sap.com/india/news-reader/index.epx?articleID=17619
5) Amazon continued to lower prices of cloud computing and offer more options.
6) Google continues to dilly -dally with its analytics and cloud based APIs. I do not expect all the APIs in the Google APIs suit to survive and be viable in the enterprise software space. This includes Google Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL, Prediction API at https://code.google.com/apis/console/b/0/ Some of the location based , translation based APIs may have interesting spin offs that may be very very commercially lucrative.
7) Microsoft -did- hmm- I forgot. Except for its investment in Revolution Analytics round 1 many seasons ago- very little excitement has come from MS plans in data mining- The plugins for cloud based data mining from Excel remain promising yet , while Azure remains a stealth mode starter.
8) Revolution Analytics promised us a GUI and didnt deliver (till yet 🙂 ) . But it did reveal a much better Enterprise software Revolution R 5.0 is one of the strongest enterprise software in the R /Stat Computing space and R’s memory handling problem is now an issue of perception than actual stuff thanks to newer advances in how it is used.
9) More conferences, more books and more news on analytics startups in 2011. Big Data analytics remained a strong buzzword. Expect more from this space including creative uses of Hadoop based infrastructure.
10) Data privacy issues continue to hamper and impede effective analytics usage. So does rational and balanced regulation in some of the most advanced economies. We expect more regulation and better guidelines in 2012.
Some ways to test and use cloud computing for free for yourself-
The folks at Microsoft Azure announced a 90 day free trial Continue reading “Cloud Computing by Windows , Amazon and Google for free”
This promotional offer enables you to try a limited amount of the Windows Azure platform at no charge. The subscription includes a base level of monthly compute hours, storage, data transfers, a SQL Azure database, Access Control transactions and Service Bus connections at no charge. Please note that any usage over this introductory base level will be charged at standard rates.
Included each month at no charge:
Any monthly usage in excess of the above amounts will be charged at the standard rates. This introductory special will end on March 31, 2011 and all usage will then be charged at the standard rates. Standard Rates: Windows Azure
|
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/
Free Tier*
As part of AWS’s Free Usage Tier, new AWS customers can get started with Amazon EC2 for free. Upon sign-up, new AWScustomers receive the following EC2 services each month for one year:
Paid Instances-
| Standard On-Demand Instances | Linux/UNIX Usage | Windows Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Small (Default) | $0.085 per hour | $0.12 per hour |
| Large | $0.34 per hour | $0.48 per hour |
| Extra Large | $0.68 per hour | $0.96 per hour |
| Micro On-Demand Instances | ||
| Micro | $0.02 per hour | $0.03 per hour |
| High-Memory On-Demand Instances | ||
| Extra Large | $0.50 per hour | $0.62 per hour |
| Double Extra Large | $1.00 per hour | $1.24 per hour |
| Quadruple Extra Large | $2.00 per hour | $2.48 per hour |
| High-CPU On-Demand Instances | ||
| Medium | $0.17 per hour | $0.29 per hour |
| Extra Large | $0.68 per hour | $1.16 per hour |
| Cluster Compute Instances | ||
| Quadruple Extra Large | $1.60 per hour | N/A* |
| Cluster GPU Instances | ||
| Quadruple Extra Large | $2.10 per hour | N/A* |
* Windows is not currently available for Cluster Compute or Cluster GPU Instances. |
||
NOTE- Amazon Instance definitions differ slightly from Azure definitions
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
Instances of this family are well suited for most applications.
Small Instance – default*
1.7 GB memory
1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core with 1 EC2 Compute Unit)
160 GB instance storage
32-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: m1.small
Large Instance
7.5 GB memory
4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
850 GB instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m1.large
Extra Large Instance
15 GB memory
8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
1,690 GB instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m1.xlarge
Instances of this family provide a small amount of consistent CPU resources and allow you to burst CPU capacity when additional cycles are available. They are well suited for lower throughput applications and web sites that consume significant compute cycles periodically.
Micro Instance
613 MB memory
Up to 2 EC2 Compute Units (for short periodic bursts)
EBS storage only
32-bit or 64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Low
API name: t1.micro
Instances of this family offer large memory sizes for high throughput applications, including database and memory caching applications.
High-Memory Extra Large Instance
17.1 GB of memory
6.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
420 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: m2.xlarge
High-Memory Double Extra Large Instance
34.2 GB of memory
13 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
850 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m2.2xlarge
High-Memory Quadruple Extra Large Instance
68.4 GB of memory
26 EC2 Compute Units (8 virtual cores with 3.25 EC2 Compute Units each)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m2.4xlarge
Instances of this family have proportionally more CPU resources than memory (RAM) and are well suited for compute-intensive applications.
High-CPU Medium Instance
1.7 GB of memory
5 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2.5 EC2 Compute Units each)
350 GB of instance storage
32-bit platform
I/O Performance: Moderate
API name: c1.medium
High-CPU Extra Large Instance
7 GB of memory
20 EC2 Compute Units (8 virtual cores with 2.5 EC2 Compute Units each)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: c1.xlarge
Instances of this family provide proportionally high CPU resources with increased network performance and are well suited for High Performance Compute (HPC) applications and other demanding network-bound applications. Learn more about use of this instance type for HPC applications.
Cluster Compute Quadruple Extra Large Instance
23 GB of memory
33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
API name: cc1.4xlarge
Instances of this family provide general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) with proportionally high CPU and increased network performance for applications benefitting from highly parallelized processing, including HPC, rendering and media processing applications. While Cluster Compute Instances provide the ability to create clusters of instances connected by a low latency, high throughput network, Cluster GPU Instances provide an additional option for applications that can benefit from the efficiency gains of the parallel computing power of GPUs over what can be achieved with traditional processors. Learn moreabout use of this instance type for HPC applications.
Cluster GPU Quadruple Extra Large Instance
22 GB of memory
33.5 EC2 Compute Units (2 x Intel Xeon X5570, quad-core “Nehalem” architecture)
2 x NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi” M2050 GPUs
1690 GB of instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Very High (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
API name: cg1.4xlarge
versus-
Windows Azure compute instances come in five unique sizes to enable complex applications and workloads.
| Compute Instance Size | CPU | Memory | Instance Storage | I/O Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Small | 1 GHz | 768 MB | 20 GB* | Low |
| Small | 1.6 GHz | 1.75 GB | 225 GB | Moderate |
| Medium | 2 x 1.6 GHz | 3.5 GB | 490 GB | High |
| Large | 4 x 1.6 GHz | 7 GB | 1,000 GB | High |
| Extra large | 8 x 1.6 GHz | 14 GB | 2,040 GB | High |
*There is a limitation on the Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) size if you are deploying a Virtual Machine role on an extra small instance. The VHD can only be up to 15 GB.
My annual traffic to this blog was almost 99,000 . Add in additional views on networking sites plus the 400 plus RSS readers- so I can say traffic was 1,20,000 for 2010. Nice. Thanks for reading and hope it was worth your time. (this is a long post and will take almost 440 secs to read but the summary is just given)
My intent is either to inform you, give something useful or atleast something interesting.
see below-
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 6,311 | 4,701 | 4,922 | 5,463 | 6,493 | 4,271 |
| Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|
| 5,041 | 5,403 | 17,913 | 16,430 | 11,723 | 10,096 | 98,767 |
Sandro Saita from http://www.dataminingblog.com/ just named me for an award on his blog (but my surname is ohRi , Sandro left me without an R- What would I be without R :)) ).
Aw! I am touched. Google for “Data Mining Blog” and Sandro is the best that it is in data mining writing.
”
DMR People Award 2010
There are a lot of active people in the field of data mining. You can discuss with them on forums. You can read their blogs. You can also meet them in events such as PAW or KDD. Among the people I follow on a regular basis, I have elected:Ajay Ori
He has been very active in 2010, especially on his blog . Good work Ajay and continue sharing your experience with us!”
What did I write in 2010- stuff.
What did you read on this blog- well thats the top posts list.
So how do people come here –
well I guess I owe Tal G for almost 9000 views ( incidentally I withdrew posting my blog from R- Bloggers and Analyticbridge blogs – due to SEO keyword reasons and some spam I was getting see (below))
http://r-bloggers.com is still the CAT’s whiskers and I read it a lot.
I still dont know who linked my blog to a free sex movie site with 400 views but I have a few suspects.
| Referrer | Views |
|---|---|
 r-bloggers.com |
9,131 |
 Reddit |
3,829 |
| rattle.togaware.com |
1,500 |
 Twitter |
1,254 |
 Google Reader |
1,215 |
| linkedin.com |
717 |
| freesexmovie.irwanaf.com |
422 |
| analyticbridge.com |
341 |
 Google |
327 |
| coolavenues.com |
322 |
 Facebook |
317 |
| kdnuggets.com |
298 |
| dataminingblog.com |
278 |
 en.wordpress.com |
185 |
| google.co.in |
151 |
 xianblog.wordpress.com |
130 |
| inside-r.org |
124 |
| decisionstats.com |
119 |
| ifreestores.com |
117 |
| bits.blogs.nytimes.com |
108 |
–
Still reading this post- gosh let me sell you some advertising. It is only $100 a month (yes its a recession)
Advertisers are treated on First in -Last out (FILO)
I have been told I am obsessed with SEO , but I dont care much for search engines apart from Google, and yes SEO is an interesting science (they should really re name it GEO or Google Engine Optimization)
Apparently Hadley Wickham and Donald Farmer are big keywords for me so I should be more respectful I guess.
| Search | Views |
|---|---|
| libre office | 925 |
| facebook analytics | 798 |
| test drive a chrome notebook | 467 |
| test drive a chrome notebook. | 215 |
| r gui | 203 |
| data mining | 163 |
| wps sas lawsuit | 158 |
| wordle.net | 133 |
| wps sas | 123 |
| google maps jet ski | 123 |
| test drive chrome notebook | 96 |
| sas wps | 89 |
| sas wps lawsuit | 85 |
| chrome notebook test drive | 83 |
| decision stats | 83 |
| best statistics software | 74 |
| hadley wickham | 72 |
| google maps jetski | 72 |
| libreoffice | 70 |
| doug savage | 65 |
| hive tutorial | 58 |
| funny india | 56 |
| spss certification | 52 |
| donald farmer microsoft | 51 |
| best statistical software | 49 |
What about outgoing links? Apparently I need to find a way to ask Google to pay me for the free advertising I gave their chrome notebook launch. But since their search engine and browser is free to me, guess we are even steven.
so in 2010,
SAS remained top daddy in business analytics,
R made revolutionary strides in terms of new packages,
JMP launched a new version,
SPSS got integrated with Cognos,
Oracle sued Google and did build a great Data Mining GUI,
Libre Office gave you a non Oracle Open office ( or open even more office)
2011 looks like a fun year. Have safe partying .
DECISION STATS 