Microsoft pursues analytics ambitions with acquisition of Metanautix

Metanautix's product can pull information in from a variety of private and public cloud data sources including traditional data warehouses, NoSQL databases like Cassandra and business systems like Salesforce. Once it's aggregated, businesses can use SQL to query the resulting data pipeline in order to glean insights from the information.

The terms of the deal weren't disclosed when it was announced on Friday. Microsoft isn't saying much about its plans for Metanautix's technology, though Corporate Vice President Joseph Sirosh revealed that the company plans to roll it into products like SQL Server and Cortana Analytics Suite. More on that should be disclosed in the coming months.   

This deal is another step in Microsoft's strategy to offer businesses powerful analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to make them more productive in an age of data proliferation. By providing access to capabilities most companies couldn't develop on their own, Microsoft has the potential to draw more users into its public and private cloud ecosystems.

The company -- especially with Sirosh at the helm of the Data Group -- is making a big bet that those intelligent cloud capabilities will help it to draw customers away from competitors like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.