Ovum Analyst Comments on Microsoft's Announcement for BI

Microsoft (News - Alert) recently announced at a business intelligence (BI) conference in Seattle that it is releasing “Kilimanjaro”, a new release of the SQL Server 2008. This is not a new database, as some assumed and what it added will not replace or upgrade any portion of the current database management system.

Fausto Ibarra, Microsoft’s director of product management for SQL Server wrote in an e-mail to diTii.com, “What we are announcing this week is a release of SQL Server code-named ‘Kilimanjaro’ focused on BI and delivering new capabilities in the area of self-self service analysis and self-service reporting.”

 

“These are new capabilities and not a rewrite, rework, or upgrade. SQL Server Kilimanjaro will ship in H1 calendar year 2010, and we will continue to commit to a major release of SQL Server every 24-36 months,” Ibarra concluded.

Helena Schwenk, a senior analyst for global advisory and consulting firm, Ovum (News - Alert), pointed to Kilimanjaro as Microsoft’s attempt to bolster its presence and visibility in the end-user BI market.

The software giant is also trying to move up the business value chain and bring Microsoft one step closer to delivering on its promise of ‘BI for the masses’. Overall, Ovum believes that if the company can get the timing and pricing right, other BI vendors will have a lot to be worried about.

“But secondly, and perhaps more interestingly, it signifies a greater emphasis towards supporting the needs of end users by leveraging the capabilities of SQL Server and the ubiquity of Excel. These are unchartered waters for Microsoft; while Excel is a pervasive BI tool, it has certain technical limitations that prevent it from being used as a full-blown reporting and analysis tool - the next version of SQL Server addresses this.”

Schwenk also noted that understanding the different components within Kilimanjaro will be a significant challenge. Despite market confusion, the solution does not equate to the next version of SQL Server, but instead relates to a number of features and functionality included in the next release of SQL Server 2008 as it will make the platform more scalable and help it appeal to a wider pool of business users.

Gemini is Microsoft’s BI power-user play. The name is code for the new managed self-service analysis capabilities within SQL Server. Project Gemini is believed to be the standout announcement as it constitutes a number of different client and server BI components.

Project Gemini is targeted at the power user and requires the familiarity of Excel but with the scale and power of a heavy-duty multidimensional tool – SQL Server Analysis Services. An add-in component, it is designed to alleviate the need for users to understand and become proficient with the design.

Microsoft also introduced Project Madison, which is designed to support high-end, large-scale data warehousing deployments through the integration of technology assets that it acquired from Datallegro in September.

This will be a data warehousing appliance solution built on collaboration with hardware vendors Dell (News - Alert), HP, Unisys, Bull Systems and EMC. It will be available for preview in the next 12 months, with full availability in 2010.

Schwenk concluded, “Unlike some of its cautious competitors, Microsoft has openly shared details of the SQL Server roadmap it aims to deliver over the next two years. This is a brave and bold move by the company, as Microsoft isn’t always known for its reliability on release dates (SQL Server 2008 was six months late and SQL Server 2005 was even later). Let’s hope Microsoft manages to buck this trend with Kilimanjaro.”