Search results matching tags 'SSAS' and 'Analysis Services'

Advanced DAX course in May - unique date in 1H 2013 #dax #tabular #ssas #powerpivot

sqlbi — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:55:00 GMT

One year after the release of SQL Server 2012 I see the growing demand for DAX. There are two reasons for that: an higher number of PowerPivot users started to build more complex data models, and SSAS Tabular is starting to be adopted by a larger number of companies, with and without a previous experience on former versions of Analysis Services.

For this reasons we decided to offer a first public edition of our Advanced DAX Workshop, a training on DAX that is aimed at Advanced PowerPivot users and Analysis Services developers that want to master the DAX language. Up to now, we offered this course only for private classes, because of the limited demand, but now there is enough interest and adoption to justify an open class.

The goal of this DAX training is learning to write DAX expressions for measures and calculated columns, DAX queries for reporting needs, read DAX query plans and optimize DAX formulas. The course is a three-day workshop that includes many hands-on lab sessions, with exercises that will guide you in the learning process of the more advanced DAX concepts, enabling you to master the writing of DAX code.

The course will be in London on May 13-15, 2013. There are direct flights with a huge number of countries and cities, also outside of Europe. We do not expect to deliver other editions of this course before other 5-6 months, so don’t lose the chance to attend this intensive DAX master course. I will be the teacher in this edition and Chris Webb will assist me in organization with Technitrain. So don’t wait, early bird discount will expire in a few days, register now and join us in London!

Interviewed in SQL Down Under podcast #sqlserver #ssas #powerpivot

sqlbi — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:03:00 GMT

I’ve been interviewed by Greg Low in SQL Down Under show 58, and this is *not* an April fool! We talked for one hour about Tabular, Multidimensional, Data Warehouse and just a little bit about music (you can discover which music genre I’m used to listen…).

You can hear this interview from the SQL Down Under Show 58 page (it is an MP3 format) and if you like it there are many other past shows available. The PodCast is also available on iTunes and you can hear other podcasts in SQL Down Under page on iTunes Preview.

Discount for PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013 #passbac #ssas #sqlpass

sqlbi — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:02:00 GMT

One month ago I wrote about my sessions at PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013, in Chicago, IL on April 10-12, 2013. If you still have not registered, you can save $200 by using the code BAC228BL and you should hurry up, because there is another discount if you register within March 15, 2013.

If you are too lazy to click on the previous post, I will speech in two sessions:

Modern Data Warehousing Strategy
Self-Service Data Modeling

And now that Data Explorer Preview has been made public I can disclose that Data Explorer will be covered in my Self-Service Data Modeling session! I thought about writing an article about Data Explorer, but there is already a good coverage and I suggest you to read these blogs:

Introduction to Data Explorer Preview for Excel by Jason Thomas
Several posts by Chris Webb
Announcement on Data Explorer Team blog

First spring conference: PASS Business Analytics Conference and SQL Bits #passbac #sqlbits #sqlpass

sqlbi — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:50:00 GMT

Spring is a conferences’ season and the upcoming one is no exception. I will be speaking at PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013, which will be the first event this year, so I’d like to spend a few words about my sessions.

PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013
April 10-12, 2013 | Chicago, IL – United States

This conference is targeted to Business Analytics professionals. Thus, I expect to meet both BI Developers, Excel Advanced Users, Data Analyst and, of course, the new Data Scientist role (if you have a business card with such a definition, please drop me one, so I can demonstrate to skeptic people that this figure actually exists!). I have two sessions:

Modern Data Warehousing Strategy

April 11th, 2013 – 1:30 pm – Chicago Ballroom VIII
Track: Strategy and Architecture
The recent introduction of new technologies such as PowerPivot, the BI Semantic Model, and columnstore indexes in SQL Server and advances in self-service business intelligence and big data might be considered threats to the classic data warehouse ecosystem. In reality, a good data warehouse is still the best starting point for any kind of analysis, but we do need to update our strategy for data warehouse implementation to fit the requirements of this new era. This session will start the conversation about what a modern strategy for data warehousing can and should be. What type of data modeling should we use for the data warehouse? What is the role of data marts? Does the use of technologies such as PowerPivot or Analysis Services Tabular affect the way we should model our data? Do columnstore indexes remove the need for an analytical server like Analysis Services? We will discuss these and other questions, offering an updated approach to the data warehouse modeling methodology.

Self-Service Data Modeling

April 12th, 2013 – 1:30 pm – Sheraton Ballroom I & II
Track: Data Analytics and Visualization
Self-service business intelligence looks promising, empowering information workers to grab amazing insights from data. But are Excel 2013 and DAX language knowledge enough to analyze data? The answer in most cases is no – information workers will also need an ability to properly model their data and the skill to use some new tools to reshape data in the correct way. In this session, we will analyze some common problem scenarios where data analysis is difficult due to the shape of the model and see how to solve them.

In theory, I expect two different audiences at the two sessions, but I know that there will be people attending both, especially who provides tools to end users. I’d like to receive feedback about what you would expect to see in such sessions (regardless you will attend or not!), so that I check if I defined the correct expectations for the audience.

If you want to attend, register before March 15 in order to get a discounted price. You can also save $200 by using the code BAC228BL. See you in Chicago!

First DAX Advanced Workshop in London, May 2013 #dax #tabular #ssas

sqlbi — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:21:00 GMT

Are you working with SSAS Tabular? Are you an experienced PowerPivot user? In both cases, you should be aware that there is only one skill that is important for PowerPivot and SSAS Tabular, and it is the DAX language. I and Alberto have been using DAX since 2010, wrote several books containing several chapters about DAX and we know that there is still much to do. We have plans to publish more content online (more on this in a few months…) but we realized that the number of companies building tabular models is increasing every day. The common issues we see are about design, calculation, queries and performance. All of them are related to DAX, and we understand that learning DAX requires mentoring and practice (if only we had that 3 years ago…).

Well, the good news is that now you can learn DAX deeper and faster. We created a new intensive DAX course that we called DAX Advanced Workshop. It is a three-day classroom that is aimed to Advanced PowerPivot users and Analysis Services developers that want to master the DAX language and improve their skills in performance optimization. The course includes hands-on lab sessions assisted by the trainer (me or Alberto), including exercises for creating queries, solving business problems and locating performance bottlenecks in DAX.

Prerequisite: Attendees need to have a basic knowledge of the SQL 2012 Analysis Services Tabular modeling or they need to be familiar with PowerPivot for Excel and have produced at least some basic reports. A prerequisite of the course is the participation to a SSAS Tabular or PowerPivot Workshop, or having equivalent experience.

If you think you’re ready for that, we have a single date in Europe before summer, and it will be in London on May 13-15, 2013. You can download course outline and register here. Seats are limited, hands-on-labs requires real assistance. You have to bring your laptop for hands-on-labs. It will be funny, but it will be tough!

We don’t have plans for other editions until next fall, so if you are interested, free your agenda. Unless you want an on-site edition in another date, of course.

Please, let me know if you are interested in US. You might have a good excuse to visit London, but if this is not enough, then give me your feedback. We will evaluate demand from US in order to schedule other public classes.

March 2013 Events and Workshops in Aarhus, DK and Utrecht, NL #ssas #powerpivot

sqlbi — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:22:00 GMT

Spring is coming and we published many dates of SSAS Tabular Workshops around Europe and online.

Alberto Ferrari is coming to Aarhus, Denmark, for a 2-day SSAS Tabular Workshop on March 12-13, 2013 (you can see more info and register here). And Alberto will also deliver a free session in a community event on March 12 evening: the session is PowerPivot for Excel 2013 in Action and you can find more info here.

In the same month, I will go to Utrecht, The Netherlands, for the same 2-day SSAS Tabular Workshop on March 25-26, 2013 (info and registration here). We are working on a free community event on March 25, I will write an update post as soon as we define program and schedule.

If you cannot travel, Alberto will also deliver a SSAS Tabular Workshop Online on February 27-28, 2013. The schedule is optimized for America’s time zones, so attending from Europe might be convenient if you are busy in daytime. You can register this week taking advantage of the discounted Early Bird price.

And there is more to come… stay tuned!

End of 2012 and news in 2013 for #PowerPivot, #ssas #tabular and BI

sqlbi — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:26:38 GMT

This year is going to end, Maya failed their predictions and while this is bad for predictive industry, it’s also good for all of us!

We’ve seen many news in Microsoft BI stack:

Excel 2013 has been RTM’d – its General Availability is expected in early 2013 but many early adopters are already using it daily (myself included)
PowerPivot and Power View are both integrated in Excel 2013 and I think that they are the most compelling reason to upgrade your Excel. Power View alone worth the effort
SQL Server 2012 has been released and I’m seeing the first SSAS Tabular projects going in production in these days.
I, Alberto and Chris published the book Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model, which has good reviews and is selling well. It’s clear that the interest is high in this new technology for Corporate BI
We also run several SSAS Tabular Workshops, many sessions about Tabular topics in conferences and user groups.
I stopped writing blogs/article in the last weeks, but don’t worry, it’s just that I and Alberto are just writing another book…
We recorded several videos about DAX for Project Botticelli and we’ll enhance this library in 2013.

So what’s next in 2013? Let’s see some anticipations and personal predictions:

SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 are going to further innovate Self-Service BI. Maybe that this process is not so fast as Microsoft hopes, but it’s a clear direction and I hope that new features in this area will appear with a sooner release cycle, we simply cannot wait other 3 years to get more features on the cloud.
Mobile BI with Microsoft Technologies is going to be a real thing in 2013. And Office for iPad should be real, too. Power View for iPad as a native application is also another important step.
I will speak at PASS BA Conference 2013 in Chicago, IL (April 10-12, 2013) – at that time, I hope much of the MS Mobile BI tools will be available to anyone.
In March 2013 our new PowerPivot book Microsoft Excel 2013: Building Data Models with PowerPivot will be published by Microsoft Press. We are working hard these days in order to complete the drafts, we listened to all of the feedback we received, especially from Excel users. Time will tell if we did a good job on that.
We will publish other content on SQLBI web site and we have some interesting news for PowerPivot users and Tabular developers… but it’s too early to discuss that. Just stay tuned! Why not registering to our newsletter? (hint – scroll down to the end of the page to insert your email)
We will announce a new PowerPivot Workshop for Excel 2013 (we are working on an updated web site – it should be ready by the end of January)
In January we will announce new dates for our SSAS Tabular Workshop and the new DAX Advanced Workshop.
I hope DAXMD will be released this year, it is already available as CTP. If you create canned reports for SSAS Multidimensional, consider using DAX as a query language when DAXMD will be released.
DAX will be always more important…

Economy is not going well in many countries, and I’ve seen this impacting also our ecosystem. Sometimes you might think that your efforts are worthless, but in the long term the investments in updating skills produces a good return, at both company and individual level. Don’t give up!

I wish you a Great 2013!

PASS Summit 2012: keynote and Mobile BI announcements #sqlpass

sqlbi — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:11:00 GMT

Today at PASS Summit 2012 there have been several announcements during the keynote. Moreover, other news have not been highlighted in the keynote but are equally if not more important for the BI community.

Let’s start from the big news in the keynote (other details on SQL Server Blog):

Hekaton: this is the codename for in-memory OLTP technology that will appear (I suppose) in the next release of the SQL Server relational engine. The improvement in performance and scalability is impressive and it enables new scenarios. I’m curious to see whether it can be used also to improve ETL performance and how it differs from using SSD technology.
Updates on Columnstore: In the next major release of SQL Server the columnstore indexes will be updatable and it will be possible to create a clustered index with Columnstore index. This is really a great news for near real-time reporting needs!
Polybase: in 2013 it will debut SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), which will include the Polybase technology. By using Polybase a single T-SQL query will run queries across relational data and Hadoop data. A single query language for both. Sounds really interesting for using BigData in a more integrated way with existing relational databases. And, of course, to load a data warehouse using BigData, which is the ultimate goal that we all BI Pro have, right?
SQL Server 2012 SP1: the Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2012 is available now and it enable the use of PowerPivot for SharePoint and Power View on a SharePoint 2013 installation with Excel 2013.
Power View works with Multidimensional cube: the long-awaited feature of being able to use PowerPivot with Multidimensional cubes has been shown by Amir Netz in an amazing demonstration during the keynote. The interesting thing is that the data model behind was based on a many-to-many relationship (something that is not fully supported by Power View with Tabular models). Another interesting aspect is that it is Analysis Services 2012 that supports DAX queries run on a Multidimensional model, enabling the use of any future tool generating DAX queries on top of a Multidimensional model. There are still no info about availability by now, but this is *not* included in SQL Server 2012 SP1.

So what about Mobile BI? Well, even if not announced during the keynote, there is a dedicated session on this topic and there are very important news in this area:

iOS, Android and Microsoft mobile platforms: the commitment is to get data exploration and visualization capabilities working within first half of 2013. This should impact at least Power View and SharePoint/Excel Services. This is the type of UI experience we are all waiting for, in order to satisfy the requests coming from users and customers. The important news here is that native applications will be available for both iOS and Windows 8 so it seems that Android will be supported initially only through the web. Unfortunately we haven’t seen any demo, so it’s not clear what will be the offline navigation experience (and whether there will be one). But at least we know that Microsoft is working on native applications in this area. I’m not too surprised that HTML5 is not the magic bullet for all the platforms. The next PASS Business Analytics conference in 2013 seems a good place to see this in action, even if I hope we don’t have to wait other six months before seeing some demo of native BI applications on mobile platforms!
Viewing Reporting Services reports on iPad is supported starting with SQL Server 2012 SP1, which has been released today. This is another good reason to install SP1 on SQL Server 2012.

If you are at PASS Summit 2012, come and join me, Alberto Ferrari and Chris Webb at our book signing event tomorrow, Thursday 8 2012, at the bookstore between 12:00pm and 12:30pm, or follow one of our sessions!

Meet SQLBI at PASS Summit 2012 #sqlpass

sqlbi — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:11:00 GMT

Next week I and Alberto Ferrari will be in Seattle at PASS Summit 2012. You can meet us at our sessions, at a book signing and hopefully watching some other session during the conference. Here are our appointments:

Thursday, November 08, 2012, 10:15 AM - 11:45 AM – Alberto Ferrari – Room 606-607
Querying and Optimizing DAX (BIA-321-S)
Do you want to learn how to write DAX queries and how to optimize them? Don’t miss this session!
Thursday, November 08, 2012, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM – Bookstore
Book signing event at the Bookstore corner with Alberto Ferrari, Marco Russo and Chris Webb
Visit the bookstore and sign your copy of our Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model book.
Thursday, November 08, 2012, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM – Marco Russo – Room 611
Near Real-Time Analytics with xVelocity (without DirectQuery) (BIA-312)
What’s the latency you can tolerate for your data? Discover what is the limit in Tabular without using DirectQuery and learn how to optimize your data model and your queries for a near real-time analytical system. Not a trivial task, but more affordable than you might think.
Friday, November 09, 2012, 9:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Parent-Child Hierarchies in Tabular (BIA-301)
Multidimensional has a more advanced support for hierarchies than Tabular, but in reality you can do almost the same things by using data modeling, DAX functions and BIDS Helper!
Friday, November 09, 2012, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM – Marco Russo – Room 612
Inside DAX Query Plans (BIA-403)
Discover the query plan for your DAX query and learn how to read it and how to optimize a DAX query by using these information.

If you meet us at the conference, stop us and say hello: it’s always nice to know our readers!

SSAS Tabular Workshop online and other upcoming dates (and updates!) #ssas #tabular

sqlbi — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:27:00 GMT

After many conferences and travels, this summer I had some time to write and prepare new sessions for the next wave of conferences. In reality I am just doing that, even if I already restarted traveling for consulting and training. So expect new content about DAX and Tabular coming in the next months! Starting to see real customer adopting Tabular is showing many new challenges and there is still a lot to learn and to create.

If you still didn’t started working on Tabular, well, you should. As I always say, as a BI developer you should be able to choose between Tabular and Multidimensional, and in order to do that you should know both of them! One thing that I don’t like very much about marketing is that “Tabular is simpler”, because it’s often translated in “Tabular is for simple projects” when this last statement is not true. Actually, I see a lot of good reasons to adopt Tabular in complex data models, especially in non-traditional scenarios. I know, this is because I love to understand what are the actual limits of a technology, and I’m learning that there is simple a lot of space of improvement also for Tabular. It’s already fast, but it could be faster!

How can you start? Well, first of all, by reading our book. Then, by attending to our SSAS Tabular workshop. There is an online edition of the workshop on September 3-4, 2012 (hurry up if you want to register), and there are already several dates planned for the next months (and others will be added soon!). And, of course, by installing SQL Server 2012 and trying to create models over your databases. If you are too lazy, just start with PowerPivot.

As soon as you start working with Tabular or PowerPivot, you will see that there is one important skill you need: learning DAX. In the next few days I should publish an article that I’m finishing these days about best practices using SUMMARIZE and ADDCOLUMNS. If only someone published this article one year ago, I would have saved many hours of my life. But, you know, flight manuals are written in blood… and someone has to write!

Stay tuned.