Sameer Farooqui is a freelance Big Data consultant and trainer, specializing in Hadoop and Cassandra. For the past five years, he has deployed various clustering software packages internationally to clients including fortune 500, governments, hospitals and banks. Most recently he was a Systems Architect at Hortonworks where he specialized in designing Hadoop prototypes and Proof-of-Concept use cases. Previously, Sameer worked at Accenture's Silicon Valley R&D lab where he was responsible for studying NoSQL databases, Cloud Computing and MapReduce for their commercial applicability to emerging big data problems. At Accenture Tech Labs, Sameer was the lead engineer for creating a 32-node prototype using Cassandra and Amazon Cloud Computing to host 10 TB of Smart Grid data. He also worked on a 30+ person team in the design phase of a multi-environment Hadoop cluster pilot project at NetApp. Before Hortonworks and Accenture, Sameer spent five years at Symantec where he deployed VERITAS Clustering and Storage Foundation solutions (VCS, VVR, SF-HA) to Fortune 500 and government clients throughout North America.