Big Data on premises or in the Cloud

Microsoft's Big Data solution allows users to gain business insights from structured and unstructured data of virtually any size and activate new types of data irrespective of its location.

 

Microsoft's Big Data solution brief (.pdf)

For organizations, the main challenge is to effectively process both structured and unstructured data without the burden of setting up complex distributed storage and compute clusters.

 

White paper: From Data to Insights with Microsoft Big Data (.pdf)

Big Data addresses one of the most critical issues facing business today: how to gain value from the growing reams of complex data.

 

TechNet Magazine: Drilling for data

Big data is poised to overwhelm the capabilities of modern business to analyze and manage, but there are both challenges and opportunities.

 

Hands on with Big Data

Get HDInsight, Microsoft's Big Data solution

HDInsight, available both on Windows Server or as an Windows Azure service, empowers organizations with new insights on previously untouched unstructured data, while connecting to the most widely used Business Intelligence (BI) tools on the planet.

 

Download SQL Server 2012 SP1

SQL Server 2012 SP1 meets industry requirements for high availability with the new SQL Server AlwaysOn for mission-critical availability while new xVelocity in-memory technologies help enable fast data warehousing and business intelligence query performance.

 

Cumulative Update #2 for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1

In addition to new fixes introduced in CU2, SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU2 contains a rollup of all fixes previously released in SQL Server 2012 RTM CU5. For customers upgrading to Service Pack 1 from SQL Server 2012 RTM CU5, you should consider applying SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU2 to ensure CU5 fixes are available post upgrade to Service Pack 1.

 

SQL Server 2012: The New World of Data

SQL Server 2012 hit the General Availability (GA) milestone last week, but it's already battle-tested by hundreds of global organizations. Here are the resources to help you explore this new world of data.

 

SQL Azure: Cloud Database Security

There is a division of responsibility when your SQL database is running in the cloud. Your service provider secures the physical components, facilities and network, but data security ultimately rests with you.

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