Launched in 2010, Microsoft’s Windows Azure Data Marketplace sits alongside the company’s Applications marketplace as part of the Azure cloud platform. Microsoft’s data market is positioned with a very strong integration story, both at the cloud level and with end-user tooling.

Through use of a standard data protocol, OData, Microsoft offers a well-defined web interface for data access, including queries. As a result, programs such as Excel and PowerPivot can directly access marketplace data: giving Microsoft a strong capability to integrate external data into the existing tooling of the enterprise. In addition, OData support is available for a broad array of programming languages.

Azure Data Marketplace has a strong emphasis on connecting data consumers to publishers, and most closely approximates the popular concept of an “iTunes for Data.” Big name data suppliers such as Dun & Bradstreet and ESRI can be found among the publishers. The marketplace contains a good range of data across many commercial use cases, and tends to be limited to one provider per dataset — Microsoft has maintained a strong filter on the reliability and reputation of its suppliers.