As developers shift from batch MapReduce to stream processing for better latency, they are faced with the dilemma of changing tools and maintaining multiple code bases. In this work we present a method for converting arbitrary chains of MapReduce jobs into pipelined, incremental processes to be executed in a stream processing framework. Pig Squeal is an enhancement of the Pig execution framework that runs lightly modified user scripts on Storm.

The contributions of this work include: an analysis that tracks how information flows through MapReduce computations along with the influence of adding and deleting data from the input, a structure to generically handle these changes along with a description of the criteria to re-enable efficiencies using combiners, case studies for running word count and the more complex NationMind algorithms within Squeal, and a performance model which examines execution times of MapReduce algorithms after converted.

A general solution to the conversion of analytics from batch to streaming impacts developers with expertise in batch systems by providing a means to use their expertise in a new environment. Imagine a medical researcher who develops a model for predicting emergency situations in a hospital on historical data (in a batch system). They could apply these techniques to quickly deploy these detectors on live patient feeds. It also significantly impacts organizations with large investments in batch codes by providing a tool for rapid prototyping and significantly lowering the costs of experimenting in these new environments.