Microsoft has announced General Availability of Azure HDInsight.

HDInsight is a Hadoop-based service through Microsoft and Windows Azure, that brings a 100% Apache Hadoop solution to the cloud. HDInsight will allow you to seamlessly process all types of data through Microsoft’s Data Platform, with ease of management.

HDInsight will offer customers the following benefits:

1. Greater insights with familiar tools. With integration with PowerPivot and Power View, HDInsight enables you to easily analyse data. Seamlessly combine data from several sources, including HDInsight, with Power Query. Easily map your data with the new Power Map, a 3D mapping tool in Excel 2013.

2. Deployment agility. HDInsight offers agility to meet the changing requirements of your company. With a rich library of Powershell scripts you can deploy and provision a Hadoop cluster in minutes instead of hours or days. If you need a larger cluster you can simply delete your cluster and create a bigger one in minutes without losing any data.

3. Enterprise-ready. HDInsight offers enterprise-class security through a dedicated Secure Node. In addition, we simplify manageability of your clusters through extensive support for PowerShell scripting.

4. Rich Developer Experience. HDInsight offers powerful programming capabilities with a choice of languages including .NET, Java and others. .NET developers can exploit the full power of language-integrated query with LINQ to Hive. And Database Developers can use existing skills to query and transform data through Hive.

For more information on DSP and Microsoft consultancy click here.