Netezza, a data warehouse appliance vendor, has expanded its integration with Microsoft's business intelligence tools.

Netezza is offering more technology compatibility with Microsoft software and BI services within SQL Server 2008. Specifically, customers will be able to leverage within Netezza's appliance Microsoft Office 2007 and Office PerformancePoint Server, as well as SQL Server Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Integration Services.

Jim Baum, president and chief operating officer for Netezza, said in a statement that the latest advancement is part of a "growing relationship that will tighten interoperability" between the two vendors' products in the future.

"Through this partnership, we can offer our mutual customers more choice, significantly broadening our market opportunity," Baum said.

The expanded interoperability is being accomplished through a new OLE DB Connector, which is available as of this week.

Netezza is a market leader within the data warehouse appliance market, which has been heating up. As a result, vendors are delivering high-speed data mining at lower hardware and implementation costs.

Netezza has been trying to differentiate itself by moving toward more industry-focused offerings. For example, the company in September announced a deal with BI software company Actuate to design appliances for the financial services market. In addition,Netezza announced a software module for geo-spatial analysis that retailers might use to identify future store locations or insurers might use to predict areas prone to natural disasters.