Excel Blog - Data Explorer brings Big Data connectivity to Excel 2013

Impressive new capabilities for Excel (2013)

"On February 27, we announced an early look at a future addition to our self-service line-up with Microsoft Data Explorer Preview for Excel.  Data Explorer enhances the self-service BI experience in Excel by simplifying data discovery and access to a broad range of public and enterprise data sources, enabling richer insights from data that has traditionally been difficult for users to get to. If you haven't seen it, check out the video below to see how Data Explorer enhances the BI experience.
With Data Explorer, users can now quickly and easily import data from a variety of sources, including Web, Excel, Text, Database and Azure. Access to non-traditional sources such as Active Directory, Facebook and big data solutions like Hadoop are now within the reach of any user."

Excel Blog - Data Explorer brings Big Data connectivity to Excel 2013