At an MDM industry conference late last year, Microsoft executive Donald Farmer explained to an engaged audience of practitioners and Microsoft die-hards that certain components of Microsoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) offered discrete features that could ultimately work as part of the MDM stack. "While Microsoft isn't specifically marketing MDM," Farmer explained, "we are indeed offering functionality that satisfies discrete MDM processing needs."

Microsoft's MDM strategy took a right turn this past week when the company announced its acquisition of Atlanta-based MDM software company Stratature.

Up until now, some IT executives have considered MDM a luxury outside of the core IT infrastructure, many marginalizing it as a mere "application" dangling at the end of the development pipeline. The Stratature purchase signals Microsoft's intention to help its customers not just manage the data in their SQL Server databases, but master the entity and relationship details necessary for sustainable data integration, rendering master data central to the company's data on demand strategy. Moreover, it indicates that Microsoft sees integration as transcending BI and supporting operational systems as well. Acquiring Stratature renders Microsoft a bona-fide player in the CDI/MDM space.

Farmer, now Principal Program Manager for SQL Server Data Mining at Microsoft, sees the Stratature acquisition as a natural extension of the existing SSIS strategy, not to mention an important component to the company's suite of BI and analytics.

"Buying Stratature has everything to do with how Microsoft sees the evolution of data from not only a reporting and BI standpoint, but from reconciliation and operational deployment angles as well," says Farmer. "This will not only enhance our SQL Server capabilities, it will provide better data to Microsoft's range of BI solutions, including Analysis and Reporting Services, helping Microsoft's customers not only improve their reports, but take their data management and stewardship capabilities even farther."

So much for MDM on the fringe.

Technorati tags: MDM, CDI, Microsoft MDM, Stratature, Microsoft BI