Back in January, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Revolution Analytics, the purveyor of the most widely used programming language for statistical computing. Called simply, R, the development language enables customers in areas such as financial, manufacturing, health care, retail, and research to make it easier for data scientists to sift through masses of ever-growing data repositories.
With the acquisition finalized today, Microsoft plans to build R into SQL Server and integrate the scalable R distribution into Azure HDInsight and Azure Machine Learning. Additionally, Microsoft promises to continue to support R as a heterogeneous solution for Linux, Teradata, and Hadoop.
The acquisition brings the following R attributes to the Microsoft stable of big data services:
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The latest R language engine from the R Foundation for Statistical Computing
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High-performance R language engine (multi-threaded processing with Intel Math Kernel Library)
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100% Compatibility with all R-related software; CRAN packages, Rstudio, and third-party R integrations
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Extended capabilities with the Reproducible R Toolkit
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Support for Windows, MacOS, and Linux distributions
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Open-source (GPLv2) license
More information about planning, timelines, and roadmaps will be presented at both BUILD and Ignite.
