Power BI: Dataflows
Dataflows, previously called Common Data Service for Analytics as well as Datapools, will be in preview soon and I wanted to explain in this blog what it is and how it can help you get value out of your data … Continue reading →
James Serra
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.
Power BI new feature: Composite models
There are two really great features just added to Power BI that I wanted to blog about: Composite models and Dual storage mode. This is part of the July release for Power BI Desktop and it is in preview (see … Continue reading →
The need for having both a DW and cubes
I have heard some people say if you have a data warehouse, there is no need for cubes (when I say “cubes” I am referring to tabular and multidimensional OLAP models). And I have heard others say if you have OLAP … Continue reading →
Monitoring Azure SQL Database
There are a number of options to monitor Azure SQL Database. In this post I will briefly cover the built-in options and not 3rd-party products that I blogged about a while back (see Azure SQL Database monitoring). Monitoring keeps you alert … Continue reading →
Azure Data Lake Store Gen2
Big news! The next generation of Azure Data Lake Store (ADLS) has arrived. See the official announcement. In short, ADLS Gen2 is the combination of the current ADLS (now called Gen1) and Blob storage. Gen2 is built on Blob storage. By … Continue reading →
Analytics Platform System (APS) AU7 released
The Analytics Platform System (APS), which is a renaming of the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), has just released an appliance update (AU7), which is sort of like a service pack, except that it includes many new features. Below is what is new in this release: Customers … Continue reading →
Understanding Cosmos DB coming from a relational world
Cosmos DB is an awesome product that is mainly used for large-scale OLTP solutions. Any web, mobile, gaming, and IoT application that needs to handle massive amounts of data, reads, and writes at a globally distributed scale with near-real response times for … Continue reading →
Getting value out of data quickly
There are times when you need to create a “quick and dirty” solution to build a report. This blog will show you one way of using a few Azure products to accomplish that. This should not be viewed as a … Continue reading →
Microsoft Build event announcements
Another Microsoft event and another bunch of exciting announcements. At the Microsoft Build event this week, the major announcements in the data platform space were: Multi-master at global scale with Azure Cosmos DB. Perform writes on containers of data (for example, collections, … Continue reading →
Azure SQL Data Warehouse Gen2 announced
Monday was announced the general availability of the Compute Optimized Gen2 tier of Azure SQL Data Warehouse. With this performance optimized tier, Microsoft is dramatically accelerating query performance and concurrency. The changes in Azure SQL DW Compute Optimized Gen2 tier are: 5x query … Continue reading →
Podcast: Big Data Solutions in the Cloud
In this podcast I talk with Carlos Chacon of SQL Data Partners on big data solutions in the cloud. Here is the description of the chat: Big Data. Do you have big data? What does that even mean? In this episode … Continue reading →
Cost savings of the cloud
I often hear people say moving to the cloud does not save money, but frequently they don’t take into account the savings for indirect costs that are hard to measure (or the benefits you get that are simply not cost-related). … Continue reading →
Podcast: Myths of Modern Data Management
As part of the Secrets of Data Analytics Leaders by the Eckerson Group, I did a 30-minute podcast with Wayne Eckerson where I discussed myths of modern data management. Some of the myths discussed include ‘all you need is a data lake’, ‘the … Continue reading →
Webinar: Is the traditional data warehouse dead?
As a follow-up to my blog Is the traditional data warehouse dead?, I did a webinar on that very topic for the Agile Big Data Processing Summit. The deck is here and the webinar is below:
Continue reading →Is the traditional data warehouse dead? webinar
As a follow-up to my blog Is the traditional data warehouse dead?, I will be doing a webinar on that very topic tomorrow (March 27th) at 11am EST for the Agile Big Data Processing Summit that I hope you can join. Details … Continue reading →
Public preview of Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
Microsoft has announced the public preview of Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. I blogged about this before. This will lead to a title wave of on-prem SQL Server database migrations to the cloud. In summary: Managed Instance is an expansion … Continue reading →
It’s all about the use cases
There is no better way to see the art of the possible with the cloud than in use cases/customer stories and sample solutions/architectures. Many of these are domain-specific which resonates best with the business decision makers: Use cases/customer stories Microsoft IoT … Continue reading →
My latest presentations
I frequently present at user groups, and always try to create a brand new presentation to keep things interesting. We all know technology changes so quickly so there is no shortage of topics! There is a list of all my presentations with … Continue reading →
Azure Data Architecture Guide (ADAG)
The Azure Data Architecture Guide has just been released! Check it out: http://aka.ms/ADAG Think of it as a menu or syllabus for data professionals. What service should you use, why, and when would you use it. I had a small involvement … Continue reading →
Conversations with Data Warehouse Experts – Podcast
In this podcast I talk with Mike Rabinovici of Dimodelo Solutions about data being the new currency, the importance of showing customers the art of the possible, and last but not least my go to TV show. Click here to listen. Also … Continue reading →