SQL Server 2012 (“Denali”): PowerPivot
Version 2 of PowerPivot (download) is being made available with SQL Server 2012. There are many new features, and my top 5 are:
Diagram View – Instead of looking at the defined relationships in a list format, v2 allows you to view the relationships in a diagram. This makes it much easier to view how all the data fits together
KPIs – You can now create Key Performance Indicators
Hierarchies – There is now functionality to model parent-child relationships along with a PATH function to display the path of a parent-child relationship in a delimited format
Perspectives – You can define subsets of a model to provide a simplified view for the end-user (same as in SSAS)
Sort by Other Column – Allows for sorting one column by another column within the same table. For example, the month name column can be sorted by the month number column
Note that PowerPivot supports files up to 2GB in size (after compression). This is an “artificial” restriction that allows it to be uploaded into SharePoint. The 64-bit version of PowerPivot enables you to work with up to 4GB of data in memory, and the 32-bit version enables you to work with up to 2GB of data in memory (but realistically only 500-700MB, see How much data can I load into PowerPivot?). And because of compression, PowerPivot can fit an additional 1-10x times the size of the database into memory, so the 64-bit version can fit a 4GB-40GB database into memory. Typical compression runs about 2:1.
More info:
SQL Server 2012 PowerView and PowerPivot v2
What’s new in PowerPivot for Excel with SQL Server Code Name “Denali” CTP3
Microsoft PowerPivot Code-Named “Denali” CTP3 Release Notes
Using PerformancePoint Services (PPS) with PowerPivot SQL Server 2012 RC0
Hi James,
Thank You for the post , it is very informative.
Can SQL Server 2008 and 2012 can simultaneously reside together in one machine. I read in user groups that the Sql Server Data tools for 2012 can mess up your 2008 SSIS instance.
SQL Server 2012 needs Windows 7 service pack 1 , did you face any issues while upgrading to Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
Thanks
Dipu
Pingback:Power BI for Office 365 - SQL Server - SQL Server - Toad World
Pingback:Power BI for Office 365 | James Serra's Blog