Microsoft unites SQL Server with Hadoop by Ted Samson.
From the post:
Microsoft today revealed more details surrounding Windows and SQL Server 12 support for big data analytics via cozier integration with Apache Hadoop, the increasingly popular open source cloud platform for handling the vast quantities of unstructured data spawned daily.
With this move, Microsoft may be able to pull off a feat that has eluded other companies: bring big data to the mainstream. As it stands, only large-scale companies with fat IT budgets have been able to reap that analytical bounty, as the tools on the market tend to be both complex and pricey.
Microsoft’s strategy is to groom Linux-friendlier Hadoop to fit snugly into Windows environments, thus giving organizations on-tap, seamless, and simultaneous access to both structured and unstructured data via familiar desktop apps, such as Excel, as well as BI tools such as Microsoft PowerPivot.
That’s the thing isn’t it? There are only so many DoD size contracts to go around. True enough MS will get their share of those as well (enterprises don’t call the corner IT shop). But the larger market is all the non-supersized enterprises with only internal IT shops and limited budgets.
By making MS apps the information superhighway to information stored/processed elsewhere/elsehow (read non-MS), MS opens up an entire world for its user base. Needs to be seamless but I assume MS will be devoting sufficient resources to that cause.
The more seamless MS makes its apps with non-MS innovations, such as Hadoop, the more attractive its apps become to its user base.
The ultimate irony. Non-MS innovators driving demand for MS products.