REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 11, 2013 — More than 75 percent of midsize to large businesses are implementing big data-related solutions within the next 12 months — with customer care, marketing and sales departments increasingly driving demand, according to new Microsoft Corp. research released today.

Big Data Infographic February 10, 2013 The explosion of devices, apps, the cloud and the Internet has ushered in the era of big data. Survey results uncover several key trends as companies grapple with big data and start to use it to gain a competitive advantage.

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According to Microsoft’s “Global Enterprise Big Data Trends: 2013” study of more than 280 IT decision-makers, the following trends emerged:

• Although the IT department (52 percent) is currently driving most of the demand for big data, customer care (41 percent), sales (26 percent), finance (23 percent) and marketing (23 percent) departments are increasingly driving demand.

• Seventeen percent of customers surveyed are in the early stages of researching big data solutions, whereas 13 percent have fully deployed them; nearly 90 percent of customers surveyed have a dedicated budget for addressing big data.

• Nearly half of customers (49 percent) reported that growth in the volume of data is the greatest challenge driving big data solution adoption, followed by having to integrate disparate business intelligence tools (41 percent) and having tools able to glean the insight (40 percent).

The company published its findings to the Microsoft News Center this morning, kicking off a week of announcements focused on the company’s big-data customers, products and future investments.

Microsoft “Big Data Week”

“Big data can be large tables of structured data, huge files of complex unstructured data, or small amounts of machine-generated data that pile up faster than you can make sense of it,” said Eron Kelly, general manager of SQL Server at Microsoft. “Microsoft’s goal is to help everyone make better, faster decisions by providing tools that make it easy to find insights in big data, small data … any data.”

Big data is changing the way organizations and people do business, discover insights and interact with one another. This week Microsoft will embark on a week of digital storytelling that showcases what customers, partners, the industry and Microsoft are doing to bring this vision to life:

• Today: “Global Enterprise Big Data Trends: 2013” and insight from big data executives and analysts

• Tuesday, Feb. 12: Spotlight on big data early adopters, including a Q&A with The Weather Channel Chief Information Officer Bryson Koehler on how big data is transforming his company

• Wednesday, Feb. 13: Microsoft’s big data approach, investments and products

• Thursday, Feb. 14: Silicon Valley big data event highlights

• Friday, Feb. 15: The future of big data and machine learning within Microsoft Research, including a Q&A with MSR Researcher Eric Horvitz

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 11, 2013 — For the millions of Americans waiting in anticipation for the president’s State of the Union address on Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. EST, Bing and FOX News Channel have partnered to launch the first-of-its-kind Bing Pulse online voting tool, which enables Americans to track and share opinions in real time during the president’s State of the Union speech. The Bing Pulse is part of a comprehensive State of the Union experience at Bing.com/Politics. The site provides a single destination for up-to-the-minute political news, expert information, real-time conversations and social sentiment on major policy issues.

The number of Americans who crave a more interactive political experience is growing, according to a recent Bing survey showing that nearly 75 percent of people identified themselves as active participants or observers in online political discussions.* Powered by Bing search technology and its unique social search experience, Bing’s State of the Union site is a nonpartisan online destination that was launched to meet this growing need for up-to-the-minute political information and second-screen experiences that are a great companion to political broadcasts.

Bing.com/Politics will keep people in the know from a vast number of news sources and social feeds, including a live stream of the State of the Union address, expert commentary, real-time social media sentiment tracking and more, such as the following:

• A live feed of President Obama’s State of the Union address at Bing.com/politics, including commentary from FOX News Channel political experts. FoxNews.com will also feature additional analysis and commentary including multiple live video streams along with photo galleries from the event. Viewers can log on at http://www.foxnews.com/sotu.

• The Bing Pulse online poll, which will feature updated results every few seconds throughout the speech. Unlike typical polls, Bing Pulse will allow people to self-identify as male or female, register their party affiliation, and join the conversation. It will feature a live count of the number of “pulses,” or votes, along with a line graph of how users react to language and issues throughout the speech. Data will be split by gender and political affiliation.

• Real-time news results using the Bing news selector that helps people navigate the news by filtering coverage from left-leaning and right-leaning sources.

• Live sentiment analysis via Bing Beat, which will focus on real-time social sentiment across major issues, such as immigration, gun control and the fiscal cliff.

• Original videos of former President Jimmy Carter and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offering commentary on the State of the Union address.

• A live feed of social conversations on Twitter so people can stay informed on what leading political pundits are saying about the speech.

“Bing.com/Politics is the best second-screen viewing companion for the State of the Union address,” said Mark Penn, corporate vice president, Microsoft. “Bing uniquely offers a holistic view of information, reaction and even sentiment during this key political moment in America. Our strategic partnership with FOX News Channel allows us to provide the data Americans want to see most, and Bing Pulse will set the bar for live polls of the modern age.”

Bing.com/Politics is the place to join the conversation and see another reason for people to choose Bing over Google.

About Bing

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. It was introduced in 2009 with a mission to empower people with knowledge — to answer any question and provide useful tools to help you best accomplish your goals, from the everyday to the extraordinary.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* The Bing research was based on a survey by Impulse Research Corp., an independent research company based in Los Angeles, Calif. The survey was conducted online in October 2012 with a random sample of 1,005 men and women, ages 18 to 34, who use the Internet for information on a regular basis — all members of the Impulse Research proprietary online panel. The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match U.S. population demographics, and the respondents are representative of American men and women, ages 18 to 34.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

DtSQL is a FREE universal database query and editor tools for developers and database administrators to Query, Edit, Browse, and Manage Database objects such as tables, views, indexes, procedures, functions, triggers, contraints and sequences. It can access most databases : Cache, DB2, Derby, Firebird, FrontBase, H2, HSQLDB, Informix, Ingres, JDatastore, MaxDB, Mckoi, Mimer, MySQL, Oracle, PointBase, PostgresSQL, Solid, SQLite, SQL Server, SQL Anywhere, Sybase (ASE).

1. Database Browser Tools : browse schemas, tables, columns, primary and foreign keys, constraints, views, indexes, triggers, stored procedures, functions, sequences, and so on.
2. Database Tools : create, alter, view and drop database tables, views, indexes, constraints, stored procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, and so on.
3. Database Management Tools : edit database table data including binary/BLOB and CLOB data types. Filter, sort and search query result. Insert, duplicate, update, and delete database table data. Find and replace database data, preview generated SQL. Redo or undo last table data change before update is commit.
4. SQL Tools : tools to edit, format and execute SQL scripts.
5. SQL Builder : help tools to build database select, insert, update, delete SQL scripts.
6. Import Data : tools to import data from various formats such as CSV files, Excel files, and fixed-width files. Parse import data according to integer, date, time, timestamp, and boolean pattern.

7. Export Data : tools to export database data (single table/multiple tables/query result) in various formats such as CSV files, Excel files, XML, HTML, SQL insert statements and fixed width files. Format export data according to applied integer, date, time, timestamp, and boolean pattern.

8. It is FREE to use.

9. Home: http://www.dtsql.com

10. Features: http://www.dtsql.com/database_tools.htm

Today, the Precog team has released a free implementation of Precog for PostgreSQL. Precog for PostgreSQL empowers users to easily perform data science on PostgreSQL.

This release bundles the core Precog analysis technology into a completely free package that anyone can download and deploy on their existing PostgreSQL database. Precog for PostgreSQL gives you the ability to analyze all the data in your PostgreSQL database, without forcing you to export data into another tool or write any custom code.

Precog for PostgreSQL comes bundled with Labcoat, a high-level analysis tool that lets users analyze data using Quirrel, the statistically-oriented query language. To get started, visit this page to download the zipped file (includes JAR, scripts and config file).

To get started….

1. Download the zip file
2. Configure Precog
3. Launch Precog
4. Try the API
5. Try Labcoat
6. Analyze your data!

See the read me for the complete installation and configuration instructions. We provide full support for this release so if you run into any trouble, please contact the Precog team at support@precog.com.

Have fun analyzing your data on your PostgreSQL database and let us know what you think!

NEW YORK — Feb. 8, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Surface family of PCs is growing with Surface Pro, the newest member of the Surface family, along with a number of new products and accessories available tomorrow. Surface Pro with Windows 8 Pro is perfect for customers and businesses looking for the power and performance of a PC in a tablet package, and, starting tomorrow, it will hit physical and virtual shelves in the United States and Canada at all Microsoft retail stores and microsoftstore.com and at Staples and Best Buy in the United States and Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada.

New Products

Also starting tomorrow, customers will be able to purchase several new Surface products and accessories, letting them further personalize their computing experiences and be more productive.

• Surface RT with Windows RT will be available in a new 64GB(1) standalone version for an estimated retail price of US$599 to allow customers the option of selecting a cover of their choice.

• Customers will be able to purchase a Wedge Touch Mouse Surface Edition for an estimated retail price of US$69.95 in all markets where Surface is currently sold,(2) with additional markets to follow in the coming weeks.(3)

• Three new Touch Cover Limited Editions in red, magenta and cyan will be available for an estimated retail price of US$129.99 in all markets where Surface is currently sold.(2)

Market Expansion

Microsoft also confirmed today that a substantial increase in market availability of Surface RT will take place on Feb. 14, bringing Surface RT to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

“We are thrilled to expand the Surface family with the release of Surface Pro,” said Panos Panay, corporate vice president, Microsoft Surface. “The launch of Surface Pro marks a pivotal moment for customers who can now do more with their machines than ever before. Within the Surface family, customers will be able to choose a combination of devices that best suit their needs: Surface Pro, which provides the power and performance of a laptop in a tablet package, or Surface RT, which offers the convenience of a tablet with some laptop capabilities so you can get things done.”

On Oct. 26, Microsoft released Surface RT — a device representative of a tablet with some laptop capabilities that weaves productivity and mobility into one beautiful product. Surface RT is great for people looking for all-day battery life (up to 8 hours battery life) and an entertainment-first experience with the ability to still get some work done. The newest addition to the Surface family, Surface Pro, is more like a full-blown Windows 8 Pro laptop that also boasts tablet capabilities. Now, customers can have a fully functional PC that looks, feels and acts like a tablet. With Surface Pro, customers can do virtually everything they’ve ever done on a PC, ranging from using traditional desktop applications to enjoying the protection of world-class safety and security technologies.

The Surface family of PCs represents an extension of the Windows experience, letting customers work, play and connect with others. From an ultralight durable casing, integrated kickstand and covers that allow customers to be productive anywhere to a full-sized USB port, 16:9 widescreen, high-definition display and 22-degree angle that make it optimal for viewing and sharing content easily, the Surface products let customers seamlessly transition between entertainment and creation.

Additional details on Surface are available at http://www.Surface.com, the Surface Blog and Surface on Facebook. Those interested can follow Surface or Panos Panay on Twitter for additional updates.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

(1) System software uses significant storage space; your storage capacity will be less. See surface.com/spec. 1GB equals 1 billion bytes.

(2) Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States

(3) Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.