MicroStrategy Announces the New MicroStrategy Analytics Platform™

-- Expanded Platform Delivers Self-Service Analytics Coupled with Powerful, Enterprise-Grade Business Intelligence

-- New Desktop Product—With Lightning-Fast Visual Analytics—is Easy to Download and Free of Charge

TYSONS CORNER, Virginia, Oct. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms, today unveiled its new MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, a comprehensive family of powerful, easy-to-use analytics solutions. The MicroStrategy Analytics Platform is MicroStrategy's most important new software release in years and is the culmination of over two decades of innovation in analytics and business intelligence. It includes three distinct products:

• MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise™ (Enterprise-grade business intelligence)
• MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop™ (Free self-service visual analytics tool)
• MicroStrategy Analytics Express™ (Free Cloud-based self-service visual analytics)

Together, these products support a full spectrum of business needs with maximum flexibility and affordability, running at individual, team, departmental, or enterprise-scale; delivered as a desktop application, on the web or mobile devices; supporting high performance analytics on gigabytes, terabytes, or petabytes of data; and deployed on-premises or up to 100x more quickly in the MicroStrategy Cloud™.

The three MicroStrategy Analytics Platform products also share a common user experience—making it easy to start small with self-service analytics and grow into the production-grade features of Enterprise.

"We're thrilled to introduce our powerful, new Desktop product, which we've made easy to download and freely available to all users at www.microstrategy.com," said Paul Zolfaghari, President, MicroStrategy Incorporated.

"With the addition of Desktop and other product enhancements, we now offer a complete analytics platform for the enterprise as well as for the departmental, self-service user," added Zolfaghari. "We believe that we have transformed the self-service analytics market with our new on-the-fly data blending technology; free out-of-the-box map analytics for all MicroStrategy customers; our supercharged in-memory analytics to support 10x more data than previously; and extension of our industry-leading performance with improvements in both speed and throughput in Big Data analytics."

According to Wayne Eckerson, President, BI Leader Consulting and industry analyst, TechTarget: "The new MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop makes MicroStrategy a top-tier competitor in the red-hot visual discovery market. The company was one of the first enterprise BI vendors to ship a visual discovery tool, so its offering is mature compared to others in its peer group, but it was locked away inside its existing platform. By offering a stand-alone desktop visual discovery tool and making it freely available, MicroStrategy places itself among the leaders in this new sector of business intelligence."

Adds Cindi Howson, Founder, BIScorecard: "The new data blending feature in MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop will boost this enterprise solution's agility, and the easier-to-use, more appealing interface will up the ante in the competitive visual data discovery market. The new MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop, with no complicated modeling and free for now, seems easy enough for any BI user to test drive."

For more information about the new MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nySVK_Lxeg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5t4SCTZCdQ.

A Complete, Easy-to-Use Analytics Platform: MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise
Recently, a number of BI vendors have been offering quick-hit, visual data discovery solutions. These can provide instant analytical gratification, but represent a business-intelligence dead end because they are not designed to scale gracefully, do not guarantee data governance and trustworthiness necessary for mission-critical analytical applications, and lack enterprise features like production reporting, security and access controls, and native mobile app support. As a result, these visual data discovery tools generally remain confined to teams or departments.

MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise is the next generation of MicroStrategy's core enterprise analytics software platform. It elegantly combines the productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of production-grade business intelligence. This best-of-both-worlds approach bridges the gap between fast, beautiful, interactive visual analytics and powerful, large-scale production business intelligence.

MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise delivers a powerful combination:

• Effortless self-service visual data discovery, delivered with enhanced speed and power. MicroStrategy's new data blending capabilities enable any business user to combine data from multiple sources on-the-fly. Grab data from your sales system to check out the latest trend -- blend in sales rep compensation from a spreadsheet to figure out which rep produces the most revenue per dollar of expense; or blend in data from the US Census Bureau to see how customer demographics are affecting sales. It all happens with just a click. And IT support is not required to combine data – so creating analytics against multiple data sources is up to 100x faster for a business user.
• Cutting-edge enterprise business intelligence with next-generation Dashboards 2.0. With this current release, MicroStrategy extends beyond traditional dashboards to introduce the next generation of information-driven apps – Dashboards 2.0.  The new dashboards are a futuristic cockpit for running your business. They deliver embedded multimedia content, personalized data, and guided business workflows and transactions to bridge analysis and action.  Real-time data updates offer immediate operational feedback.
• Improved Big Data support, with new data connectors. MicroStrategy already provides access to a full range of data sources – including spreadsheets, relational and columnar databases and appliances, SaaS-based application data, and Big Data sources. This release incorporates new data connectors for newly popular Hadoop distributions and adds access to NoSQL data sources. New connectors include:
  • MongoDB, an innovative NoSQL database.
  • Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop, an enterprise Hadoop distribution with powerful self-tuning features.
  • HortonWorks Data Platform 1.3, a leading Hadoop distribution.
  • Pivotal HAWQ, a performance accelerator for EMC's PivotalHD Hadoop distribution.
• Advanced analytical capabilities, enhanced and extended. MicroStrategy delivers an extensive range of analytical functionality, including over 300 native functions plus tight integration with the industry's leading open-source analytical tool, "R", for access to over 5,000 more. Through a streamlined user interface, every business user can now quickly tap into advanced analytics – from basic summarization and trends to advanced predictive and prescriptive metrics. In this release, MicroStrategy adds out-of the-box map analytics so users can visualize their data in compelling, insightful geographic representations. These advanced mapping features -- powered by Esri, the world leader in location analytics -- include markers, clusters, layers, shapes, and more. Multiple map skins and cartographic overlays are available so every user can create brilliant-looking map analytics.
• The industry's #1 ranked mobile analytics, improved and refined. The smartphone and tablet revolution has enabled organizations to arm employees with analytics and inject that actionable insight at the point of decision-making. Yet numerous analytics vendors short-change their customers by providing a clumsy web experience awkwardly ported to mobile devices. MicroStrategy delivers fully native, touch-optimized mobile analytics for iPhone, iPad, and Android. With full offline mode, military-grade security, integrated transactions, multimedia content, and stunning performance, MicroStrategy ranks #1 in mobile analytics by both analysts and consumers. This release extends existing mobile capabilities with enhanced graphing, formatting, and self-service functionality, so users can slice and dice, drill, pivot, modify, and visualize their data with complete immersion and interactivity.
• Supercharged performance enhancements. Major architectural improvements enable MicroStrategy users to analyze 10x more data in-memory than was previously possible, for speed-of-thought analytics on massive data sets. Analytics involving multiple data sets are now supercharged by MicroStrategy's new in-memory data blending technology, delivering results up to 40x faster than previously possible with direct database queries. Self-service analytics now run 40% faster, often with sub-second response.  To enhance user scalability, throughput has increased by nearly 100%, which means the platform supports twice the number of users on an equivalent hardware configuration.
• Upgraded Cloud-based deployment with exceptional time-to-value and cost savings. Today, over 60 customers, including some of the world's leading brands, such as Johnson & Johnson, Ingram Micro, Thomson Reuters, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, are running MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise in the MicroStrategy Cloud. Thanks to MicroStrategy Direct Connect technology, they can host their data either on-premises or in the MicroStrategy Cloud. MicroStrategy Cloud service is available in 48 hours, and the typical Cloud customer deploys their first analytical application in just over three weeks. The average Cloud customer avoids estimated up-front capital expenditures of approximately $1.3 million. MicroStrategy Cloud is now releasing its third-generation architecture, which includes major enhancements, including:
  • Improved connectivity and reliability. Mirrored data centers offer reliable high-speed connectivity and improved disaster recovery.
  • Single sign-on support. MicroStrategy Cloud now supports seamless integration with existing single sign-on (SSO) infrastructure via the SAML 2.0 standard. This allows every user to access MicroStrategy Cloud security using his or her normal enterprise authentication process, removing the need to create and manage multiple user credentials and improving overall security.
  • "R" Enablement Package. MicroStrategy Cloud has added new support for the "R" analytical tools as an optional hosted service. Customers can now leverage R's massive library of advanced analytical functions and embed them as metrics directly in analytical applications running on MicroStrategy Cloud. It is an exceptionally fast way to tap into the advanced prediction, optimization, and prescription features of "R" and deliver them to hundreds or thousands of users so they can make smarter, more informed business decisions.
  • Support for SQL Server Enterprise Edition. MicroStrategy Cloud adds support for SQL Server Enterprise Edition to its full range of cost-effective, high performance database options, which already include Teradata, Actian ParAccel, SQL Server, and Netezza. This new option delivers higher performance, supports higher data volumes up to 3 TB, and is a quick upgrade for existing SQL Server hosting customers.
  • Expanded self-service administration. MicroStrategy Cloud is expanding self-service administration with a new Cloud Customer Portal that will enable customers to perform a variety of common administrative functions more quickly and easily through a single easy-to-use interface. It will also feature a library of expanded Cloud technical content and fast access to Cloud technical support. The Portal will become available to Cloud customers in November.

"At dunnhumby, we are passionate about loyalty and partnering for future growth. Using data and science, we help our clients put customers at the heart of their decision making," said Steve Kinder, Technical Director, dunnhumby. "MicroStrategy's new in-memory data blending capability gives our analytics team greater flexibility to identify new and emerging trends affecting customer behavior. That enables us to deliver more value to our clients, faster than ever before."

"As data volumes and sources continue to proliferate, we see ever-increasing demand for BI systems with faster data access," said Fred Gallagher, VP Strategic Business for Actian Corp. "Together, Actian's ParAccel Big Data Analytics Platform and the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform provide a compelling combination of high performance and affordability, scalable from a desktop to server to a cluster. Whether on cloud or on-premises, Actian and MicroStrategy provide transformational Big Data management with advanced data visualization. Now, organizations can enable a more diverse user base to unlock the benefits of rich, usable BI."

"We are excited to see the new MicroStrategy Analytic Platform," said John Kreisa, VP Strategic Marketing at Hortonworks. "Apache Hadoop adoption will be driven through a modern data architecture powered by easy to use and integrated analytic tools like these that enable organizations to leverage their existing skills."

"We're excited to be working with MicroStrategy to further optimize platform integration and interoperability," said Matt Asay, Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy at MongoDB. "The need to derive insights from data-rich applications continues to grow, and we look forward to serving enterprises with a best-of-breed joint solution that seamlessly interoperates with one another."

"MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise is designed to bring extremely fast time-to-value for our customers, with cutting-edge self-service capabilities and an ultra-fast Cloud deployment option," said Sanju Bansal, Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President, MicroStrategy Incorporated. "But even more significantly, we eliminate major risks around selection of an analytics solution. With MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise, our customers can be confident that their product choice supports an extensive range of analytical use cases, delivers high performance at any data or user scale, and does it cost-effectively across a broad range of delivery media. Unlike other analytical point solutions, there is no danger MicroStrategy customers will run into a dead end on functionality, scalability, or performance."

MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop
As a core part of its introduction of the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, MicroStrategy is releasing a new free-of-charge, desktop-based, self-service analytics solution, MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop. Desktop is a fast, fun, easy-to-use tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. With Desktop, it takes just minutes to create stunning, useful data visualizations and data-driven stories that create new insight and new understanding.

The product is freely available to all and can be downloaded instantly at: http://www.microstrategy.com/free/desktop.

MicroStrategy Analytics Express
MicroStrategy Analytics Express (Express), formerly known as MicroStrategy Express, is the third product in the integrated MicroStrategy Analytics Platform family. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based application that delivers all the rapid-fire self-service analytical capabilities of Desktop, plus pixel-perfect reports and dashboards, native mobile applications, and secure team-based collaboration – all instantly accessible in the Cloud. Today, the Express community includes over 32,000 users across the globe.

In this release, Express inherits all the major functional upgrades of the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, including new data blending features, improved performance, new map analytics, and much more.

For a limited time, MicroStrategy is also making Express available to all users free for a year. With this valuable offer, users will be able to establish an account, invite tens, hundreds, or even thousands of colleagues to connect, analyze and share their data and insight, and do it all at no charge. For some organizations, the potential value of this offer can be $1 million or more.

Users can sign up, access the service, and take advantage of this offer instantly at www.microstrategy.com/free/express.

About MicroStrategy Incorporated
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. The Company's mission is to provide the most flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly platforms for analytics, mobile, identity and loyalty, offered either on premises or in the cloud.

The MicroStrategy Analytics Platform™ enables leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout the enterprise. Our analytics platform delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share their insights anywhere, anytime. The MicroStrategy Mobile App Platform™ lets organizations rapidly build information-rich applications that combine multimedia, transactions, analytics, and custom workflows. The MicroStrategy Identity Platform™ (branded as MicroStrategy Usher™) provides organizations the ability to develop a secure mobile app for identity and credentials. The MicroStrategy Loyalty Platform™ (branded as MicroStrategy Alert) is a next-generation, mobile customer loyalty and engagement solution. To learn more about MicroStrategy, visit www.microstrategy.com and follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/microstrategy) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/microstrategy).

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, MicroStrategy Mobile App Platform, MicroStrategy Identity Platform, MicroStrategy Loyalty Platform, MicroStrategy Usher, MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise, MicroStrategy Analytics Desktop, MicroStrategy Analytics Express, and MicroStrategy Cloud are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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Contact:
Warren Getler
MicroStrategy Incorporated
+1-703-744-6258
wgetler@microstrategy.com