Eric M Russell (11/24/2015)
YesSQL !Apparently coding MapRedice is ok for academics and geeks, but as Hadoop's usage expanded into the commercial realm (ie: paying customers), folks started asking:
"Where's the SQL?".
Use Spark?
Unfortunately, learning another language is going to be key with Hadoop. You cannot slide by doing everything in just SQL. Python for one good example is extremely easy. Combine Python with SQL for Spark and you are able to do some magic without having to do MapReduce in Java. I personally use a Python framework for MapReduce that works great without having to do Java.
If you limit yourself to not doing anything because you don't want to learn another language, then you're only hindering yourself from a really great tool.