Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

For more than a decade, Microsoft has been helping customers unlock business insights in data of all sizes and types, beginning with Analysis Services in SQL Server 7.0 and continuing with our new SQL Server 2012 capabilities. Our customers have been asking us to help store, manage, and analyze these new types of data – in particular, data stored in Hadoop environments.

We therefore formed a strategic Partnership with Hortonworks and together we will be working closely with the Hadoop community and proposing contributions back to the Apache Software Foundation and the Hadoop project which is very much in line with our goal of broadening the adoption of Hadoop.

By enabling organizations to deploy Hadoop based big data analytic solutions in Hybrid IT scenarios either on premises on Windows Server, in the cloud on Windows Azure, or both, customers have the flexibility to process data wherever it is born and wherever it lives.

Key benefits include:

•Broader access of Hadoop to end users, IT professionals, and developers, through easy installation and configuration and simplified programming with JavaScript.

•Enterprise-ready Hadoop distribution with greater security, performance, ease of management and options for Hybrid IT usage.

•Breakthrough insights through the use of familiar tools such as Excel, PowerPivot, SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services.

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s public cloud platform that includes a cloud services operating system and a set of developer services, which provide the functionality to build applications that span from consumer Web to enterprise scenarios.

We are excited to meeting you all in person,

Stephan Pepersack

Product Marketing Manager Windows Azure

Nokia makes adventure possible everywhere, every day. Yes, we do make phones but we are more than that, really. Our philosophy is all about adventure, so we build great mobile products that enable billions of people worldwide to enjoy more of what life has to offer. Living the adventure, we dare to think out of the box.

We are not only a global company but we are beating right at the heart of the tech trends. Nokia has been present in Berlin since 2006 and our site in Europe’s hottest digital city has grown rapidly. What do we do in this metropolitan hotspot? Well… Currently there are more than 650 proud Nokians from more than 50 countries around the world working across different units; such as Location & Commerce, Mobile Phones and Markets.

Our Location & Commerce unit creates cutting edge technology that revolutionizes the way people discover what matters to them, using their mobile devices and the Internet. Nokia Berlin is the key R&D center for Location Based Services, covering everything to do with Maps, Navigation and www.maps.nokia.com. We are completely dedicated to help people navigate and explore the world. The journey starts right here in Berlin, on web, mobile or 3D. The Nokia 3D Maps are available for 25 cities worldwide and our Berlin campus is buzzing with enthusiasm to expand the adventure to include more places around the globe constantly. We love outdoors and that is why our Maps have become an integral part of our lives.

We are a people company and we embrace the way Berlin Buzzwords brings the most passionate and dynamic minds together. At Nokia, we believe in networking, sharing, discovering and learning to look at things in a different way, That’s kind of how we roll! Our journey at Nokia is adventurous. For us, Buzzwords is a great opportunity to meet the most brilliant developers in their fields. Our people are keen to share their passion as we are proudly presenting the short talks of Steffen Bickel, Stefan Pohl and Stefan Hübner of our Search Team on Monday, June 4. The Search Team is particularly focused on machine learning and data-driven methods and has close ties to Nokia Research. Our very own Isabel Drost, also a fellow member of Search and one of the founders of Berlin Buzzwords, is repeatedly putting her heart and soul into making this event a must by bringing the greatest minds together.

Join the adventure with Nokia and make a difference in a global organization. In Berlin, we are currently looking for the best talents in the following areas: Machine Learning/ Java Experts, JavaScript/ HTML5 Engineers, System Engineers for Linux/ Cloud & Automation. Interested? Visit www.nokia.com/careers.

Isabel Drost, one of the co-organizers of Berlin Buzzwords 2012 gave some insights on how we did the scheduling. An interesting peek behind the scenes.

She wrote: 

I thought it might be interesting to share some background on how Berlin Buzzwords scheduling worked out this year. We changed it quite a bit - adding more people to the conference committee, upping the acceptance rate while at the same time reducing speaking time for quite a few talks. This is to share some background information on some of the reasons and provide some detail on how rating was done.

Read the full article here.

On June 6th and 7th, right after Berlin Buzzwords 2012 there will be a two days training session by Orange11: an Introduction to Apache Solr & Lucene. This is a public training where everyone is welcome, but there is a special €300 discount for all attendees of Berlin Buzzwords 2012. 

The course aims to provide a solid foundation in Enterprise Search concepts, starting with Apache Lucene basics and internals throughout best-practices, basic Information Retrieval and distributed search application development with Apache Solr. During and after the training hours there will be time for discussions as well as attendee case-studies. At the end of the training you will have a deep understanding how Apache Lucene and Solr work together, you will be able to reliably analyze, understand and solve common problems and ready to build state of the art Enterprise Search Applications.

More information about the course content as well as contact information and registration can be found on their website.