Microsoft Sharpens Its Data Chain Through Metanautix Acquisition, Partnerships

Microsoft is closing out 2015 with the acquisition of Metanautix for an undisclosed sum to help companies manage and search through a massive trove of data, and a partnership with Invoca to support Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Both focus heavily on technology that can pull and process data.

Metanautix's engineers built a search engine that makes a wide range of data more accessible. Its platform, Quest, is a query search engine that was created to be similar to Dremel, which Google uses internally to help employees analyze data stored across thousands of machines at very fast speeds.

Theo Vassilakis, former Google engineering director, co-founded Metanautix with former Facebook senior software engineer Toli Lerios. The two led a team that built and released Quest, which attracted about $7 million in funding. The software allows users to search unstructured, structured and relational data sources using SQL.

Companies like Shutterfly rely on Metanautix's technology for marketing campaign analytics to find the most effective ways to acquire and keep customers.

Joseph Sirosh, corporate VP of Data Group at Microsoft, explains that in the coming months Microsoft will fold Metanautix's technology into its data platforms, including SQL Server, and the Cortana Analytics Suite.

"We look forward to being part of Microsoft’s important efforts with Azure and SQL Server to give enterprise customers a unified view of all of their data across cloud and on-premises systems," Metanautix CEO and Co-founder Vassilakis wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft's agreement with Invoca supports enhancements to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The integration enables marketers to get closed-loop reporting in the Invoca platform, providing insight into the marketing campaigns that drive calls and the outcome of each call.

Invoca also integrated with Adobe, Kenshoo and Optimizely, further strengthening its ecosystem of more than 30 partnerships that includes Google, Salesforce, Hubspot and Marketo. 

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