ClearStory Data and Microsoft Collaborate to Deliver ClearStory's Spark-Powered Data Analysis Solution With Microsoft Azure SQL Database for Business-Ready, Fast-Cycle Analysis

MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwired - May 5, 2015) - ClearStory Data, the company bringing business-oriented Data Intelligence to everyone, today announced its collaboration with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to improve customers' ability to answer business questions by utilizing ClearStory's solution and Microsoft Data Platforms to automate diverse data analysis, data harmonization, and enable fast-cycle, business-ready insights.

By combining ClearStory's Spark-based analysis engine, built-in data harmonization capabilities, and intuitive, simple user model, businesses can now see fast-cycle insights across disparate data sources residing in data marts in Azure, Microsoft's flagship database-as-a-service offering, as well as on-premise platforms. The combination provides more data at faster speeds for everyone in business who needs to make quick data-driven decisions.

The new collaboration between ClearStory Data and Microsoft provides the fastest way to access, harmonize and blend, explore, and uncover business-ready insights through:

• Out-of-the-box fast data access and data prep - ClearStory provides highly scalable and fast Spark-powered access to data in Azure SQL Database. Upon accessing data from these sources, ClearStory's Data Inference Engine determines attributes in the source data to accelerate data prep and data harmonization, eliminating traditional, lengthy, complex data prep operations.
  
  
• Fast-cycle analysis - Users can select disparate data to be blended and harmonized. ClearStory's solution and built-in Intelligent Data Harmonization™ automates blending more sources and complex data to deliver immediate holistic, visual insights.
  
  
• Business consumption of insights via Interactive, Collaborative StoryBoards™ - Business users are empowered to be more self-reliant in asking new questions and iterating on answers quickly with Interactive, Collaborative StoryBoards™ that capture the latest insights. As data refreshes, users can more easily see, collaborate, and answer key business questions on a fast cycle. This enables consistent and faster data-driven decisions.
  
  

In an April 7^th 451 Group research report, analyst Matt Aslett writes: "ClearStory Data continues to stand out for its ability to derive insight from proprietary and public data sources, as part of a broader capability to provide user-friendly, multi-structured analytics, using innovation in data blending and harmonization."

"Through our initial collaborative focus with Microsoft, ClearStory Data simplifies data access and blending from Azure SQL Database with large volumes of disparate data on-the-fly, allowing businesses to reach answers faster," said Sharmila Mulligan, founder and CEO of ClearStory Data. "Powering fast, scalable analysis on data in Azure SQL Database, combined with other internal and external data sources and a business-ready analysis application, lets organizations quickly uncover, collaborate, and act on holistic insights more rapidly without the need for data experts or complex IT cycles of data preparation."

"Our database platform in the cloud, Azure SQL Database, has experienced tremendous growth as customers manage more of their applications and analysis projects in the cloud," says Tiffany Wissner, senior director of data platform marketing at Microsoft. "Our solution with ClearStory Data speeds access to disparate data in Azure to enable quick business-ready insights with tools for our users to analyze and collaboratively explore data."

For more information, please download ClearStory's Data Harmonization White Paper or visit www.clearstorydata.com. For more resources and information on Microsoft Azure SQL Database, please visit http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/sql-database.

About ClearStory Data

ClearStory Data is bringing Data Intelligence to everyone to accelerate the way business leaders get answers from more data, on a faster cycle, across any number of disparate data sources. ClearStory Data's solution simplifies data access to internal and external sources, automates data harmonization via Intelligent Data Harmonization™ across disparate data, enables fast, collaborative exploration, and reduces business wait times for insights via Interactive, Collaborative StoryBoards™. ClearStory Data lets business users be more self-reliant on reaching richer, faster insights. Its end-to-end solution includes an integrated Spark-based data processing platform and an incredibly simple user application model for business consumption of insights. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA and backed by Andreessen Horowitz, DAG Ventures, Google Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB).