James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last ten years. Before that he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. Check out his book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh.
When I talk to people about switching from being a salaried employee to an independent consultant (see my presentation How to make a LOT more money as a consultant), the most frequent question I hear is “I worry about having to … Continue reading →
When I am tasked to do a business intelligence or data warehouse assessment, the steps I take to do that depend on the amount of time and the number of people I have. The result of the assessment will be … Continue reading →
One of the biggest new features in SQL Server 2014 is SQL Server In-Memory OLTP, known mostly by its code name of Hekaton (see SQL Server 2014: In-memory OLTP Engine, code-name: Hekaton). Basically, this puts tables in memory, giving a potentially … Continue reading →
As I mentioned in Power BI first impressions, Power BI Q&A is an instantaneous search experience that uses a natural language query. The user enters a question and it interprets it and serves up the correct interactive chart or graph. It only … Continue reading →
While there are a lot of tools out there for data modeling, there is one option that is free if you have Visual Studio. It’s called the Entity Data Model Designer. It works well if you need a quick-and-dirty way to create … Continue reading →
One point of confusion I see with Power Query is some people believe Power Query adheres to the Excel limit of a max of 1,048,576 rows that can be imported. However, there is a way around this limit. When using … Continue reading →
I am fortunate enough to have been selected to give a presentation at the PASS Business Analytics Conference in San Jose, CA on May 7-9. My presentation will be on Thursday, May 8th from 1:30-2:30pm. Below is my presentation abstract along with … Continue reading →
Microsoft keep turning out updates to Power Query. For December, some of the new features (download): Connection to three more data sources: Sybase IQ, Exchange, and Dynamics CRM Online When using the Navigator pane in the Power Query search, it … Continue reading →
As I have been giving demos on Power BI for Office 365, I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, with many clients really loving it. There are common questions that I hear, and I thought I would list them … Continue reading →
Info from Microsoft on how the MCSA and MCSE certifications will be altered for SQL Server 2014: In reviewing the SQL Server 2014 product, the Microsoft Learning Experiences team determined that the new features focus on performance tuning and high … Continue reading →
As I mentioned in my previous post (see Power BI first impressions), Power Query is a great new tool and Microsoft has been updating it frequently. The latest update has many new features, among them: Connectivity to Windows Azure Table Storage … Continue reading →
“Power BI” is an umbrella name for a lot of products, which I explain at Power BI first impressions (also I have a video at Power BI for Office 365 video). Power BI is an Office 365 marketing offering (see pricing). Each of … Continue reading →
Since my last post about the SSDT update for August, there have been two updates, each containing one fix: The September 2013 release has a targeted fix for the Schema Compare error when working with large display text or high … Continue reading →
A demonstration of Power BI for Office 365, showing you how all the various tools and technologies work together: Power Query, Power Pivot, Power View, Power Map, Power BI sites, Data Management, Power BI Admin center, Power BI for mobile, … Continue reading →
I recorded my first video presentation and demo using the screen recording and video editing software called Camtasia Studio for Windows. It’s a great product that makes it easy to create videos that includes demos. They also have a nice list … Continue reading →
Last month I blogged that SQL Server Data Tools for SQL Server 2014 CTP2 now available. You can download that here. This will run the SSDT install (not a SQL Server 2014 install). This installs the Visual Studio 2012 shell, and … Continue reading →
I have been using Power BI the past few weeks (see my video of all the features) after I was invited by Microsoft to test the Power BI for Office 365 Preview (register here). I have to say I am extremely impressed. … Continue reading →
While the tabular model in SSAS makes it much easier to build cubes than the multidimensional model, I am not seeing it used as much as I expected. One reason is if you are a BI developer and have been … Continue reading →
Microsoft has introduced an image into the Windows Azure Virtual Machine Gallery that is pre-optimized for a Fast Track Data Warehouse (FTDW) workload. FTDW is a reference configuration optimized for data warehousing. Not only is there an image for SQL Server 2012 SP1 … Continue reading →
Windows Azure SQL Reporting was the new name of the reporting services component (which was formerly known as SQL Azure Reporting Services) that went live June 12, 2012. However today, October 31, 2013, notification went out to current Windows Azure SQL … Continue reading →