On January 23, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Revolution Analytics. With this step, Microsoft is jumping into the world of R, the powerful, open-source programming language for statistical computing and predictive analytics. The company intends to utilize Revolution Analytics’ products to improve R integration with Microsoft platforms in a wide variety of settings, including Microsoft Azure.
While some have expressed skepticism at the announcement, others have praised the potential in this acquisition, citing the need for R to improve its usability. With Microsoft’s expertise and resources behind it, R may become more user-friendly and easier to integrate with, at the least, leading Microsoft platforms. Coupled with Microsoft’s other open-sourced efforts, such as work with the Apache Hadoop community, and it could well be a major contribution to the field.
What do you think of this announcement? If you have some insight into the strengths and limitations of R and how Microsoft could handle it going forward, let us know in the comments or on Twitter @syncfusion. If you don’t know enough about R to judge, now is a great time to learn more by visiting Syncfusion’s Succinctly series e-book library and downloading a free copy of R Succinctly.