This document discusses big data processing in the cloud. It defines big data and describes how technologies like Hadoop and MapReduce are used to handle large datasets in a distributed, parallel manner. Examples of big data use cases are provided, like Google indexing over 40 billion web pages and CERN generating 25 petabytes of data per year. The cloud allows for elastic scaling of resources and enables new database technologies designed for big data. Frameworks like Google AppEngine and IBM BlueMix are platforms for building and deploying big data applications in the cloud.