The goal of this book is to highlight the issues related to research and development in big data. For this purpose, the chapter authors are drawn from academia as well as industry. Some of the authors are actively engaged in the development of products and customized big data applications. A comprehensive view on six key issues is p resented in this book. These issues are big data management, algorithms for distributed processing and mining patterns, management of security and privacy of big data, SLA for big data service and, finally, big data analytics encompassing several useful domains of applications. However, the issues included here are not completely exhaustive, but the coverage is enough to unfold the research as well as development promises the area holds for the future. Again for the purpose, the Introduction provides a survey with several important references. Interested readers are encouraged to take the lead following these references. resented in this book. These issues are big data management, algorithms for distributed processing and mining patterns, management of security and privacy of big data, SLA for big data service and, finally, big data analytics encompassing several useful domains of applications. However, the issues included here are not completely exhaustive, but the coverage is enough to unfold the research as well as development promises the area holds for the future. Again for the purpose, the Introduction provides a survey with several important references. Interested readers are encouraged to take the lead following these references.