Big Data is a huge trend in many different industries and the use of Machine Learning to analyze and predict trends is one of the key uses of such techniques. The gap for many organizations is that the skills required to generate meaningful analysis requires the use of specialized experts such as Data Scientists, Hadoop experts and business intelligence specialists.
While cloud based Hadoop has been available for some time, it has been presented as a raw service targeted to IT professionals and software engineers. Harnessing machine learning approaches and algorithms has required a significant investment in both data science expertise to choose the appropriate algorithms and software engineering to implement them.
Today, Microsoft has introduced the new Microsoft Azure Machine Learning language which will enable customers, partners and businesses to build data driven applications.
Azure ML, which previews next month, will bring together the capabilities of new analytics tools, powerful algorithms developed for Microsoft products like Xbox and Bing, and years of machine learning experience into one simple and easy-to-use cloud service. For customers, this means virtually none of the startup costs associated with authoring, developing and scaling machine learning solutions. Visual workflows and startup templates will make common machine learning tasks simple and easy. And the ability to publish APIs and Web services in minutes and collaborate with others will quickly turn analytic assets into enterprise-grade production cloud services.
Azure ML includes a design tool for harnessing enterprise grade algorithms for processing data and a software development kit for integrating them into custom developed applications.
The product is in confidential preview currently and will be available as a public preview in a month.
