Microsoft Unveils SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010

The SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas, acted as the stage for the introduction of Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010. The moniker, Microsoft-specific as it might be, is designed as the official brand for a product that has already been available to testers. While, Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010 is telling almost nothing to a lot of people, the same is not valid for Project Gemini. The Redmond company revealed that it officially branded Gemini as Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel, and that the first version of the product would be focused on the next iteration of the Excel component in Office 2010.

“PowerPivot for Excel helps drive timely and informed business decisions by empowering end users to access, integrate and analyze massive amounts of data on the desktop and share information using the familiar Microsoft Excel tools,” revealed a member of the SQL Server team.

What Microsoft is attempting to do with PowerPivot is introduce additional BI (Business Intelligence) capabilities for companies that are already leveraging its products. PowerPivot stretches not only to Excel 2010 but also to additional technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and SQL Server 2008. The Redmond company expects customers that adopt SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010 to be able to cut both training time and costs, simply because of the integration and similitude of the solution with such products as Excel and SharePoint.

“In addition, PowerPivot provides IT departments the ability to monitor user generated solutions by integrating seamlessly with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. With PowerPivot, users and IT departments can: Integrate massive amounts of data on the desktop from virtually any source; Perform lightning-fast calculations and analysis on large data volumes; Share and collaborate on user generated analysis through integration with SharePoint; Monitor user generated applications,” the SQL Server team representative noted.