Microsoft unites SQL Server with Hadoop

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.

Microsoft’s embrace of Hadoop isn’t particularly revolutionary. Cloud upstarts such as Cloudera and Datameer have been enhancing the platform for general enterprise consumption for the past couple of years, building out management and configuration tools, programs for streamlining jobs, and even spreadsheet-style front ends to enable easier access to and manipulation of Hadoop-delivered data. What’s more, the move is not especially surprising in that Redmond telegraphed its interest in integrating Hadoop with SQL as recently as August.

Still, Microsoft’s position on Hadoop has undergone a notable 180-degree turn since 2009 when Microsoft’s technical fellow David J. DeWitt dismissed it as a trendy yet unnecessary alternative to SQL: “We’d never bring Hadoop code into one of our products.”

Evidently, Microsoft simply could no longer ignore that Hadoop has become the platform of choice for the biggest fish out there, including Facebook, Google, IBM, and many, many more. Oracle’s recently announced big data appliance includes support for Hadoop. Even Dell revealed plans to sell servers preconfigured with Hadoop last August.

What’s more, Microsoft evidently could not ignore that companies are hungry for the valuable insights that can be gleaned by analyzing the myriad data streaming from sources such as Facebook and Twitter. Organizations representing an array of industries — including financial, health care, government, academia, politics, and entertainment — have already managed to reap significant findings from gathering and crunching all those bytes.

The real challenge lies in the task of Hadoop-ifying SQL Server for seamless communication with the likes of Windows Server and Azure, as well as standard, familiar desktop apps such that performing big data analysis needn’t require a degree in computer sciences. Here, Microsoft isn’t going it alone; the company announced it has partnered with Hortonworks — a three-month-old spin-off from Yahoo — to bridge the technological gaps between Hadoop and the Windows Server as well as Azure.

Timeline-wise, Microsoft intends to push out a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure by the end of this year; a CTP of the Hadoop-based distribution for Windows Server will follow in 2012.

As what may be more of a stopgap measure to the envisioned tight unification, Microsoft also unveiled the final versions of the Hadoop Connectors for SQL Server and Parallel Data Warehouse, which organizations can use to integrate Hadoop with their existing SQL Server environments.

Hadoop aside, Microsoft used the venue to showcase Data Explorer, a prototype technology designed to help organizations easily discover, enrich, and share data. The tool is intended to integrate with Windows Azure MarketPlace. Additionally, Microsoft demonstrated its Power View technology, formerly Project Crescent, which brings interactive touch capabilities to Windows devices.

This article, “Microsoft unites SQL Server with Hadoop,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.