Is Microsoft Really Embracing Big Data?
In the continuing effort to reach détente with the open source community, Microsoft is making inroads in the big data movement.
Last month, it released CTPs of Hadoop connectors for SQL Server and Parallel Data Warehouse "to promote interoperability between Hadoop and SQL Server." That's not so surprising--the Redmond software giant has made similar moves with other open source technologies.
But now there are signs the company may even be opening up to the so-called "NoSQL" data store world!
Microsoft's MSDN Magazine may be a harbringer of this trend. Up until now, there basically have been only two articles in the publication that dealt with NoSQL products. And both of them discussed the MongoDB product. One was actually a three-part series of articles by columnist Ted Neward, at the time an independent consultant. The other article was by developer evangelist Brandon Satrom, actually a Microsoft employee.
But for the November issue, there are two articles slated on the subject: an exploration of document databases by columnist Julie Lerman and an article on embedding the RavenDB data store into an ASP.NET MVC 3 app by Justin Schwartzenberger. And magazine editor Michael Desmond interviews the two in an editor's note titled "NoSQL? No Problem." I can't go into more detail now because the articles haven't been published (I just know about them because I'm technical editor of MSDN Magazine).
But is it just a coincidence that there have basically been only two previous NoSQL-themed articles and the November issue alone will double that? We'll see.
What do you think Microsoft is up to? Comment here or drop me a line.
Posted by David Ramel on 09/15/2011