Photo credit: SeattleClouds.com/Flickr.
 
Microsoft has installed Apache Hadoop on its Windows Azure platform in a bid to enhance its standing in the big data marketplace, it was revealed yesterday.
 
Hadoop is an open source big data software framework which developers can build upon to make functioning solutions.
 
The computing giant Microsoft announced its intentions earlier this year to add Hadoop services onto its Azure public cloud platform following its acquisition of Hortonworks, a Yahoo spin-off company that provides Hadoop distribution. It has now delivered on this promise by offering what is currently a limited range of Hadoop’s big data services on trial basis. No announcement has been made about if or when a full service will be available.
 
The addition to Azure will add open source applications and increased data storage on SQL Azure and adds real-time big data analytics for users. There will also be a JavaScript library to help deliver Google’s MapReduce big data tool to developers, as well as the data analysis tools for Microsoft Excel and PowerPivot.
 
Microsoft has also adjusted Azure’s pricing structure. Customers in North America and Europe will now pay $0.12 for each GB transferred in and out of Azure, a reduction from the previous price of $0.15 per GB.
 
Gianugo Rabellino, senior director of open source communities at Microsoft, wrote a blog post yesterday making the announcement. He said: “Developers want to use the tools that best fit their experience, skills, and application requirements, and our goal is to enable that choice.
 
“In keeping with that goal, we are extremely happy to be delivering new and improved experiences for Node.js, MongoDB, Hadoop, Solr and Memcached on Windows Azure.
 
“This delivers on our ongoing commitment to provide an experience where developers can build applications on Windows Azure using the languages and frameworks they already know, enable greater customer flexibility for managing and scaling databases, and making it easier for customers to get started and use cloud computing on their terms with Windows Azure.”