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I've read Manning's Big Data Lambda Architecture (http://www.manning.com/marz/BD_meap_ch01.pdf) and still not able to get why it's named 'Lambda'. Is it kinda code-name or name of system this architecture is based on?

Christian Strempfer
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setec
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3 Answers3

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In my opinion two of the core principals of Lambada Architecture are

  1. Embrace data immutability
  2. All queries can be formulated as pure functions(without side effects) on your entire data set

These properties of immutability and pure functions are the core tenets of functional programming which in turn has its origins in Alonzo Church's Lambda Calculus. Because of this Nathan Marz must have named this architecture Lambda Architecture.

parth.patil
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    So... they took a fundamental mathematical concept, and applied it to an architecture, thus overloading an already established, highly specific term with something completely different and well, fluffy? – Stephen Sep 22 '14 at 04:21
  • Lambda. You could pretty much call it "Functional Architecture" - perhaps that term could give insight into how bizarre and mildly insulting the term "Lambda Architecture" could be. _I'm not strong on Lambda calculus, and am not offended by "Lambda Architecture" - just the title seems to indicate it's something I'd not like too much. That said, I think it's got a reasonable chance of being a good architecture._ – Stephen May 22 '15 at 04:38
  • That was also my guess, but nobody knows for sure except Mr. Marz? – Alex Marandon Jul 01 '15 at 12:12
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It was chosen by the American mathematician Alonzo Church, who needed a Greek letter to denote the operator for functional abstraction when he was developing the theory of computation in the 1930s. Different people asked him why he chose that particular letter, and he gave them different answers (but the bottom line is, he didn't really care very much). For a little more detail and some links, see http://www.lambdafaq.org/why-are-lambda-expressions-so-called/

Maurice Naftalin
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    but what does it have to do with the lambda arhcitecture? – MK. Aug 16 '13 at 17:50
  • @MK The question was about origin of word 'Lambda' in term 'Lambda architecture'. But still check parth.patil answer, he points to a logical link between 'Lambda calculus formal system' to 'Lambda architecture'. – setec Mar 12 '14 at 10:10
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I think its just the letter 'Lambda'. It looks like the data is divided into two streams.

Khan
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