If you have any development experience, this book should be easy to follow. A beginner-level knowledge of Unix commands, Python, and some Java is useful to speed up the understanding, but they are not absolute requirements.

In terms of software and hardware, a machine with 1 GB RAM and a dual core processor is the minimum requirement. For all practical purposes, any modern machine (your laptop purchased in 2007 or after) is good. You should have the following software installed: Python, Java development kit 7 (JDK) or newer, Cassandra 2.1.x or newer, and Hadoop 2.6.x or newer. The examples in this book are performed in Ubuntu 14.04 and CentOS 6.3. So, if you have a Linux/Unix/OSX machine, this is ideal. You may need to look for a Windows equivalent if this is your environment.