Spark 2.0: more performance, more statistical models

Apache Spark, the open-source cluster computing framework, will soon see a major update with the upcoming release of Spark 2.0. This update promises to be faster than Spark 1.6, thanks to a run-time compiler that generates optimized bytecode. It also promises to be easier for developers to use, with streamlined APIs and a more complete SQL implementation. Spark 2.0 will also include a new "structured streaming" API, which will allow developers to write algorithm for streaming data without having to worry about the fact that streaming data is always incomplete; algorithms written for complete DataFrame objects will work for streams as well. This update also includes some news for R users.