Power BI allows you to connect directly to the data just as if it were a “standard” connection, and modify and extend the data to support analytics. By using DirectQuery, you can build reports based on extremely large datasets where re-importing data not a practical solution. It also allows you to do data aggregations on the server. There are, of course, restrictions as well but it is nevertheless a worthwhile technique to use where appropriate. Adam Aspin explains all. … Read more
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a fast and reliable way of importing and exporting data, but it can be tricky to learn, initially. Rob Sheldon provides a beginner's guide to get you started with using SSIS with Visual Studio and SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)… Read more
It is relatively easy to provide a smart BI solution when your customer has all the resources for a new hardware and software platform, but it takes ingenuity to provide an effective simple solution requiring data-driven pictorial information on a range of template diagrams with just an existing platform of SQL Server, Reporting Services and .NET. … Read more
Statistics holds out the promise of teasing out significant relationships and to determine cause and effect. Now that so much data is easily available, does that mean that we can at last harness these techniques to predict future trends and outcomes? Feodor gives an introduction to some simple techniques of predictive analytics, and explains the 'whys', 'hows' and 'wherefores'. … Read more
As well as its multidimensional model, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) now has a tabular model of database that either runs in-memory or in DirectQuery mode. The in-memory analytics engine allows the users of Excel or Power View to base reports on tabular model objects. Having shown how to handle date-based information using the Multi-dimensional model, Dennes now turns his attention on the in-memory tabular model.… Read more
A walk-through can be a great help to understanding SQL Server Analysis Services, especially when it solves the problem of providing an effective date dimension to a cube. Dennes takes Adventureworks, and demonstrates all the twists and turns of creating a cube that provides meaningful historical information.… Read more
You can develop a Power BI Dashboard that uses an R machine learning script as its data source and custom visuals. Here is a simple example that shows how to connect to data sources over the Internet, cleanse, transform and enrich the data through the use analytical datasets returned by the R script, design the dashboard and finally share it.… Read more
The Power Query Formula Language (PQFL) is a functional language that drives the Power BI transformations, and allows you to create mashup queries from scratch. Rob demonstrates how to use it in Power BI Desktop to extract data from its source, filter rows, specify the columns, clean the data, and create visualisations.… Read more
What's the best way of providing self-service business intelligence (BI) to data that is held in on-premise SQL Server? Not, it seems, Power BI 2.0 the hosted cloud service, but Power BI 2.0 Desktop. If moving your database to Azure isn't an option, Power BI 2.0 desktop could still bring smiles to the faces of your BI hotshots.… Read more
It is sometimes hard to keep up with Microsoft's direction in Business Intelligence. Over the years, we've been presented with so many ways of aggregating, processing, graphing, reporting and visualising data, that we felt it was time to take stock and present the Simple BI Timeline, and explain how BI has evolved over the years.… Read more
It often pays to use a tool like R, in conjunction with a relational database, to quickly perform a range of analyses, and graphs, in order to ensure that you're answering the right question, to explore alternative hypotheses, or to provide insight into a problem. Feodor demonstrates how to quickly, and interactively, explore the ways that customers purchase goods and services using cohort analysis.… Read more
What's the best way for a SQL programmer to learn about R? It's probably by trying out various experiments with an interesting set of data, and some helpful suggestions that point out the parallels with SQL. Feodor provides the data and the helpful suggestions. The rest is up to you.… Read more
R and SQL Server are a match made in heaven. You don't need anything special to get started beyond the basic instructions. Once you have jumped the hurdle of reliably and quickly transferring data between R and SQL Server you are ready to discover the power of a relational database when when combined with statistical computing and graphics.… Read more
For users to get the information they need from mobile reports, we frequently have to tailor the way we design those reports to the characteristics of the target device. Adam Aspin demonstrates some of the ways that we can deliver easy-to-use Business Intelligence to tablets and smartphones using Reporting Services. … Read more
ETL ( Extract, transform, load) doesn't have to be like a spell on hell. To make a success of ETL systems, you need the freedom and ability to make graceful U-turns when you detect a mistake in architecture or configuration: to fix the root problem rather than to merely tackle the symptoms. Feodor lists the eight most common root causes of failure in ETL systems, and how to fix them.… Read more
Having designed and tested our reports, it's time to deploy them to the Report Server, so that our users can access them. Kathi Kellenberger demonstrates how to configure reports for native-mode deployment using Report Manager, and then deploy them from within SSDT-BI. She also explains how to use the Report Builder to provide "self-service" reporting to end users, allowing them to build custom reports based on report parts and shared datasets.… Read more
The challenge of report development is to present complex data in a simple, visually compelling way. The goal is to make it as quick and easy as possible for others in the organization to use that data to make decisions, to see progress towards a business target, or spot and act on worrying trends sooner rather than later. Kathi Kellenberger demonstrates how to start adding visual flair to your SSRS reports, using its impressive set of visual controls, ranging from basic charts to gauges, indicators, sparklines, and maps.… Read more
The Project Deployment Model introduced in SSIS 2012, which was explained in the first part of this series, speeds up the deployment of database projects in which there may be hundreds of SSIS packages per project. Not only that, but deployments can be configured differently for each environments such as test and staging, and there are now ways of monitoring the status and performance of packages and of versioning the SSIS Catalog.… Read more
It used to be that SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages had to be deployed individually. Now, they can be all deployed together from a single file by means of the Project Deployment Model introduced in SSIS 2012. Where there are tens or even hundreds of SSIS packages to deploy, this system is essential. Feodor Georgiev talks us through the basics in the first of a three-part series.… Read more
The job of retrieving data from Excel, and importing it into SQL Server hasn't the same appeal or glamour as, for example, performing heroics with ill-performing queries. This could be why one hesitates before asking questions about how to do it. Rob Sheldon calms your private doubts and fears by answering those embarrassing questions.… Read more
