Microsoft Project Gemini Preview

Author: Nigel PendseReleased: 2008Pages: 14Single User Price: $695 USDMicrosoft announces its assault on the in-memory analytics market Just when it appeared that Microsoft had been left behind as other vendors acquired or developed in-memory and column-oriented analytics products, a secret research project — code-named Gemini — was unveiled at the Microsoft BI Conference in October 2008. The code-name is intended to reflect Gemini's role in bringing together power users — who typically develop complex Excel applications on their own — and the corporate IT department which sometimes then has to take over the resulting applications, to administer, extend and deploy them on a larger scale. These applications are often not suitable for this. This preview by Nigel Pendse, illustrated with twelve screenshots, offers a detailed overview of what users will encounter when Gemini is evenually released. Pendse also delves into the commercial issues of Gemini to reveal why, despite the slated 2010 release date, he believes it could be some considerable time before the product has any significant market impact.