Microsoft brings Hadoop to Windows Server

data within and outside the enterprise at Microsoft's PASS Summit, in Seattle, Ars Technica reports.

A big part of those plans include wiring SQL Server 2012 (formerly known by the codename 'Denali') to the Hadoop distributed computing platform, and bringing Hadoop to Windows Server and Azure. “The next frontier is all about uniting the power of the cloud with the power of data to gain insights that simply weren't possible even just a few years ago,” Kummert said in his keynote address. SQL Server 2012 will ship in the first half of next year.

"Hadoop has grown to be a compelling platform for managing and processing types of data that were born in, and live outside, the traditional database management system environment," Read Write Web quotes Doug Leland, GM for product management for SQL Server, as saying.

Computer World reports the move will help Microsoft customers better manage their 'big data' requirements, said Kummert in a statement.

Microsoft's move comes barely a week after Oracle unveiled a Hadoop-based big data appliance, along with a new Oracle NoSQL database and an open source distribution of the R programming language for statistical analysis.