Microsoft continues to be the global leader in solutions for data analytics and Business Intelligence (BI). Integration of industry-leading products such as SQL Server and Power BI with the enterprise-class ERP solution Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is driving digital transformation. The latest Gartner Magic Quadrants place Microsoft out front in three categories.
1. Data Management Solutions for Analytics (DMSA)
Gartner defines DMSA as a complete software system that supports and manages data, usually in databases. Microsoft offers a complete data management platform through SQL Server 2017 and powerful Azure cloud services, with support for machine learning and programming languages such as Python and R. Gartner noted that customers, “were generally pleased with the value for money they received from Microsoft.”
2. Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms
Microsoft, once again, is the undisputed heavy-weight champ of Business Intelligence platforms. The BI market has been transformed by a wave of disruption over the last 15 years, moving away from IT-centric system of record reporting to business-centric agile analytics with self-service. More recently, another wave of disruption has brought augmented analytics, with machine learning generating insights on increasingly vast amounts of data.
Power BI offers data preparation, data discovery, interactive dashboards and augmented analytics via a single product. The Gartner report made particular note of Power BI’s low price, ease of use and visual appeal, and was scored highest by customers for “achievement of business benefits”.
3. Operational Database Management Systems (OPDBMS)
The OPDBMS market includes relational and nonrelational DBMS products. Gartner defines a DBMS as a complete software system used to define, create, manage, update and query a database. Microsoft SQL Server DBMS and Azure SQL Database lead the field, with Microsoft receiving the highest reference customer scores of all vendors for “overall experience, meeting needs, value for money, negotiation experience, integration and deployment, service and support, professional support, ease of programming, and tunable consistency.”
