News Thursday February 27, 2014: Microsoft Named a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms 2014 and More Cloud and Enterprise News

by C&E Blogger

Microsoft Named a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms 2014

Once again, Gartner has positioned Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in the 2014 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, based on its completeness of vision and ability to execute in the BI and analytics market. Gartner forecasts that the BI platform market will have grown into a $14.1 billion market in 2013.

In addition to detailed evaluations of Microsoft and other key vendors, the full report addresses significant market trends. For example, in just one year the willingness of survey respondents to put mission critical data in the cloud jumped from 30% to 45%.

You can read the full report, including the market overview and detailed evaluations of Microsoft and other key vendors, here.*

*Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Microsoft announces the general availability of new cloud regions in Japan

Last year, Microsoft announced Windows Azure services for Japan to meet the growing demand for cloud services. On Tuesday, February 25, Microsoft shared the general availability of new cloud regions -- Japan East (Saitama Prefecture) and Japan West (Osaka Prefecture). Japan’s cloud market has grown considerably in the last few years and this growth is only expected to increase, with the projected 2014 forecast estimated at around $1.6 billion according to IDC. Similarly, Windows Azure continues to experience unprecedented levels of growth, with compute capacity doubling every six to nine months and more than 1,000 customers a day signing up for Windows Azure. As a result, the Japan expansion will help fulfill the current and future needs of Microsoft’s cloud customers in the region. The expansion will provide customers in Japan with benefits to ensure highly available services that will help them grow their business and deliver a consistent experience across Windows Azure, and on-premises and service provider clouds. It will also provide customers with access to more secure, highly available services with geo-redundancy to ensure optimal business continuity during major disasters.

For additional details read The Official Microsoft Blog post by Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise marketing, Microsoft.