With the powerful big data platform that Microsoft provides through Azure HDinsight, and with the wide range of data scientists and statisticians utilizes R, this Post is who to bring the best of both and connect R to HDinsight through Hive connector. so that you can analyze hive tables in R where they resides on the Azure HDinsight cluster so let’s see the steps

1. Download Microsoft Hive ODBC driver from here
2. Install the Microsoft Hive ODBC driver use either the x86 or the x64 ( take care of the version to use the same with R)
3. Configure your DSN in the ODBC Data Sources
1. go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > ODBC Data Sources (64-bit)
2. open System DSN click add
3. choose Microsoft Hive ODBC Driver and click Finish
4. enter the fields
1. Data Source Name: the data source name we’ll use in R so name it anything i’ll call it now HiveOnAzure
2. Description: write your desription
3. Host: get it from your Azure Manage site [yourclustername].azurehdinsight.net
4. port: leave it 443
5. Database: leave it “default”
6. Hive server type: use Hive Server 2
7. Mechanism: Windows Azure HDinsight (it automatically configures the port and Database above)
8. HTTP Path: leave it blank
9. username: your username that you entered while creating the cluster
10. password: your password that you entered while creating the cluster
11. then test the connectivity you should receive a connection successful established message
12.  
1. Now after establishing the ODBC driver connectivity to Azure we’ll shift to R

• Open RStudio (make sure to use the same x64 or x86 version as you’ve configured in the ODBC drivers)
  1. install the RODBC package

 > install.packages("RODBC")

 > library(RODBC)

1. create the ODBC connection in R

 > myconn <- odbcConnect("HiveOnAzure",uid="[YOUR_USERNAME_HERE]",pwd="[YOU_PASSWORD_HERE]" )

1. run your HiveQL Query and return the data into a data frame

 > alldata <- sqlFetch(myconn,"Select * from hivesampletable")

1. inspect the retrieved data

 > head(alldata,10)

Now you’ve successfully connected your R to the Hive on HDisnight on Azure to pass your HiveQL Queries and start doing the analysis you want to create. 

1-Sabbour, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

I’m the Azure guy and occasionally I’m also the Apps guy. I guess that embodies Microsoft becoming a Devices + Services company! Officially, I’m a Technical Evangelist for Azure.
 

2- What do you love the most about technology?

What I love about technology is that it evolves at a rapid pace, forcing us to keep learning otherwise we become obsolete.

3-Can you give us a small introduction to know Microsoft Azure better?

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform and has Infrastructure as a Service & Platform as a Service capabilities as well as various App Services that together enable you to create and run innovative solutions. These solutions can either be all running on the public cloud, or running in a hybrid-cloud model where some are hosted on your own premises.

4-Can you provide us any links that can help introduce us and expand our knowledge with Microsoft Azure?

Azure is a very comprehensive offering. Definitely check out the Azure infographics: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/infographics/ they picture how all the different Azure components can work together and provide innovative solutions.

5- What is the newest updates for Azure this year?

The great thing about Azure is that you get updates almost every month! Whenever that happens, Scott Guthrie (now EVP for Server and Tools business) blogs about it on his blog http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

The newest thing being the new Azure management portal, that can give you insights about how your applications are running at a glance, designed like a Windows 8 app:

6-Away from technology, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

I’m a foodie. I love exploring new restaurants, reviewing and critiquing their food. I also like to cook, and do BBQ. Naturally, I also take photos of my food ;)
 

7- Any advice to anyone that wants to be an IT guru?

Would you like a fish or a fishing rod? My one advice for anyone is to keep searching, keep reading, keep trying and failing. Eventually it will work and you would have learnt a lot in the process.

8- How can people contact you for any technical inquiries?

Ping me over twitter @sabbour

Thank you so much Sabbour :)

1- Youssef, can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

It is almost my third year as a Microsoft Technology Solutions Professional covering the West, East and Central Africa (WECA) region. I have started as a Unified Communications technical presales and had the chance to be one of the first Microsoft Center of Expertise Office 365 specialists. This move from on-premises solutions to cloud solutions and embracing the future before it actually happens was mainly due to my passion for technology and its new trends.

2- What do you love the most about technology? 

It’s not secret that computers, the web, and social media have all dramatically changed the way we work. What we used to compose on papers and typewriters (remember those?), we now take care of completely electronically with just a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse button. What you used to do by writing, printing, folding, putting in an envelope, stamping and mailing, you can now do by simply composing and clicking Send - and the message reaches the other person almost instantly. Technology has transformed our globe to a small village where you can interact with anyone and anytime - this is what I love the most about technology.

3- Can you introduce us to Office 365?

Office 365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing. Using the various programs in Office 365, you can do all the tasks you’re used to doing in your favorite Office applications - write documents, create presentations, check email, manage your calendar, and more – and then share what you create in real time on a team site, design and publish a website, and even create and host live online meetings while you’re traveling on the train, sitting in a coffee shop, or simply moving around and connecting through your phone.

Office 365 enables businesses to create a cloud computing approach that offers just what their business needs require with the four main technologies – Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync.

4- Can you provide us with any links that can help expand our Office 365 knowledge?

Never start learning a new technology before test driving it, follow this link and signup for your Office 365 free trial account.

After doing that, I recommend going through the Office 365 service descriptions, they will keep you busy for a while. The topics here provide detailed descriptions of the services and features that are available with Office 365.

5- What are the newest updates for Office 365 this year?

This year has been a busy one with almost all the different services across Office 365 seeing updates. The biggest news is the real time co-authoring across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Web Apps, now you can see people working together on a document simultaneously.  OneNote for Windows Store received a bunch of new features including better capture of documents, whiteboards and other physical text and bringing that directly into your notebooks. We enhanced Office Web Apps, so you can get things done more easily from anywhere.

And we added a new Partner Admin Center in Office for business, to help Partners manage their customers more efficiently. Partners now have a central place to see all their customers, monitor customer service health, administer a customer’s service, help manage and resolve support issues, and build their business with trial and subscription offers to send to their customers.

6- Away from technology, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

Hunting is my hobby. In winter, nothing is more exciting than spending the weekend in the middle of nowhere hunting wild ducks - check out my trophies :) I also have a passion for Africa and its natural beauty.

7- Any advice to anyone that wants to be an IT guru?

Be flexible because the world you know is changing faster than ever – you need to embrace new technologies and be flexible enough to not get stuck in the old ways of doing things and get rusty.

And definitely read a lot and stay up to date. But nothing replaces a hands-on experience… so go out there and start engaging!

8- How can people contact you for any technical inquiries?

Here is my email v-yoelit@microsoft.com, feel free to send through your questions/inquiries.

Thank you Youssef for the lovely interview :)

1-Moez, can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

I am a Technical Solution Specialist with a Ninja Black Belt for Customer Management Solutions acting in Middle East and Africa. Before this I was a Senior Consultant in Europe on a wide area of technologies mainly Dynamics CRM and SharePoint Server and Subject Matter Expert on software design and ASP.NET.

2- What do you love the most about technology?

Technology is the key driver for modern world, the way it reflects and accelerates real world connections and shortens distance between everyone. Before we were in a world were technology is governed by requirements and business usage, today we have changed it so it reflects sentiments, touch communication and direct contact.

3- What is CRM? Can you give us a small introduction?

Customer Relationship Management is the best solution when an organization needs to gain intelligence on their customer ecosystem and segment profitability. So it sharpens the way they are selling products and services in collaborative and Dynamic Fashion. CRM Solutions amplifies customer satisfaction and customer knowledge, automates multichannel contact and drives business performance. Today we can see CRM Apps in Small, Mid-Size and Large businesses in various industries like banking, telecommunication and governments.

What is really distinguished in Dynamics CRM is the ability to be “Polymorph” meaning the ability to translate real world situations and challenges to Technology Based efficiency. With Dynamics CRM we talk about Patient Relationship Management, Student Information Systems, Case and Records Management, Citizen Relationship management and so on. I truly believe that Dynamics CRM is the future for all businesses.

4- Any links that can help expand our Unified communications CRM knowledge.

Never miss that you can have CRM online on crm.dynamics.com

I invite everyone to see this video http://youtu.be/C3gxpUYrjM4

5- What is the newest updates for CRM this year?

Social with Microsoft Social Listening and the acquisition of Parature a Multichannel contact center software that will be pre-shipped with Dynamics CRM.

Marketing, Multichannel Campaign and Social too with Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, this is an essential too when it comes to use Marketing as a Service.

On the contact center side we are adding new features and business scenarios that will make the Contact Center experience better. We also are into shipping in the next few weeks Microsoft Dynamics Service Desk a new addition that was known as the Desktop Agent, and here is a solution that handles dynamic CTI integration and business requirements.

6-Away from technology, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

Part from technology I am an amateur swimmer I compete summertime in locals in Susah my hometown, like to hang out with friends and French & Italian cuisine.

I am also a passionate traveler. This summer, my destination is Norway to climb on top of the Pulpit Rock.

7- Any advice to anyone that wants to be an IT guru?

Be passionate about what you are doing, our job is challenging and full of adrenaline. Most important think in being a guru is sharing, in fact what I learned is that we can never be a Guru by ourselves but with the amount of information exchange we are having every day.

8- How can people contact you for any technical inquiries?

I am very active in MSDN Forums as well as ASP.Net (http://asp.net) and you can contact me through my profile http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/profile/Moez+Tounsi .

1-Mahmoud Moussa, can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My Name is Mahmoud Moussa I’m a Technology Solution Professional in Microsoft MEA Devices Application Team, A person with a passion for science, and how it can benefit business, I’ve been in Information Technology Industry for 11 Years Playing Multiple Roles, Developer, Support, Team Leader , Architect, Business Intelligence Consultant, Till I joined Microsoft and Started a Technical Presales track. Which is not only about selling technologies, but more about how you technology can benefit your customer.

Away from technology I love playing sports like Table Tennis, Squash, Volleyball and cycling, Photography, Listening to music especially 90’s and watching movies and TV shows. I married and have a little princess called “Karma”.

2- What do you love the most about technology?

Innovation is the magic word, technology as technology is a consumer kind of gadgets, but the idea of how it’s built, and ways to customize it to meet exactly your needs is my main passion, there is no limits to the ideas you can generate with technology just remove that barrier from your mind and you can do magic.

3-Can you give us a small introduction to better understand what are device Applications all about?

 Well devices his a general word that group anything that contains a CPU that can do some computing power for you. Let’s get back in time a little bit, the early days of Computers, the main frame was called a super computer, a Large PC connected to many screens and keyboards was used for work. But People needed to go more mobile, computer power started to grow, so they moved to PCs and Servers Model where you can have a client PC with nice capabilities to do your work locally and send it to the server to store it, then for more mobility we moved to Laptops. And now we are living in the internet world with data available all around us. In 2012 we generated“11 Zeta bytes of information, which equals 66,000 Miles of Dvds stacked on top of each other’s. This amount of data needs to be accessible all the time, so we are moving to the Cloud, using “Phones and Tablets” to access this information anywhere and anytime.

 There are more than 1 Billion Devices connected to the internet at this very moment. Can you imagine the business opportunities you have with these 1 Billion customers? Targeting devices is a huge business opportunity don’t let that slip away,

4-Can you provide us with any links or sources that can help us understand more about devices application?                                

Technologies are evolving I would recommend always to look for the basics of technology before technology itself .Basics can help you move from one technology to the other easily.

To Get Started use http://dev.windows.com it’s your starting point to learn everything you need to know about developing applications for Mobile Devices.

5- What is the newest or most interesting updates for devices Application this year?

The Snapdragon processors, it’s a New processor architecture that can allow you to run a Tablet as long as ARM based tablets with the power of a PC, so Imagine you can have your PC in your hands on the go everywhere.

There are things that I personally wait for but I don’t know if it will land this Year or not, like bendable LCDS, with may allow you to open a 50 inch display from your pocket, Integration of Nano Technology into displays that can allow you to move your display from just a flat into having buttons physically exist on your display. Holograms this will change the way we look to the future.

6- Away from technology, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

Doing Sports “Swimming, Table Tennis, Squash, Volleyball and Lately I started cycling”

Photography, I can’t call myself an Artist but I’m good in photography because it is a weird mix between science and art and I enjoy that A lot.

Maybe I’m in 30’s but I live with the heart of early 20’s I can Have some personal time for Music, TV shows and Movies

7- Any advice to anyone that wants to be an IT guru?

Just 2, Focus on basics and Read.

Technology is evolving every day, but basics does not change often. So do not learn how to write C# but learn how to architect an app. If you did that, you can learn all programming languages easily, tomorrow a new version of C# will come out but coding is still a foundation that changes less oftenJ.

Reading, Can keep you up to date with what’s coming which is what you really need. Know everything generally, do not lock your eyes on one topic and go deep.

8- How can people contact you for any technical inquiries?

v-mamous@microsoft.com is my Email Address, Contact me and I’ll reply if I can help.

Thank you Moussa :)