Windows Azure HDInsight Service Preview: Hadoop-based Big Data in the Cloud

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing & Operations

HDInsightYesterday, Microsoft released the public preview of the Windows Azure HDInsight Service, our cloud-based distribution of Hadoop. The Windows Azure HDInsight Service is built on the Hortonworks Data Platform to ensure long term compatibility with Apache Hadoop, while providing customers with the low cost and elasticity of cloud computing.

Customers can perform Hadoop-based big data analysis in the cloud through the Windows Azure Portal, paying only for the storage and compute capacity that they use. The preview will enable customers to deploy permanent clusters with up to 40 nodes.

The HDInsight Service also works well with Microsoft’s business intelligence tools including Excel, PowerPivot, Power View, and Data Explorer, allowing users to easily analyze their organizations’ data and garner valuable insights.

For more information about Windows Azure HDInsight Service, including our work with the Hadoop community, see the Data Platform Insider blog.