James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last eleven 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 40 years of IT experience. Check out his book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh.
Should you move your data to the cloud? That is the question. The answer is not simple. While moving data to the cloud is all the rage, the fact is a large majority of the Fortune 500 companies are not … Continue reading →
I was fortunate to be a technical reviewer for a new book, SQL Server 2014 Business Intelligence Development by Reza Rad. Below is the abstract. It’s a great book for those of you trying to learn about all the various … Continue reading →
The Analytics Platform System (APS), which is a renaming of the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), has recently released an appliance update (AU2), which is sort of like a service pack, except that it includes many new features. These appliance updates are made available frequently, … Continue reading →
The Analytics Platform System (APS), which is a renaming of the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), has a lot of obvious benefits, which I discuss here. For those of you who find your database is getting too big, or becoming too … Continue reading →
You might be reading a lot about Cloud computing and see three acronyms frequently: IaaS, PaaS, Saas. Cloud providers offer their services according to these three fundamental models: Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) This is the most basic model which is essentially your … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Modern Data Warehousing” at the Central New Jersey SQL User Group yesterday. The abstract for my session is below. I hope you enjoyed it! Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Modern Data Warehousing Modern Data Warehousing … Continue reading →
I will be presenting the session “Modern Data Warehousing” tomorrow (Wednesday, August 13th) at the Central New Jersey SQL User Group at 6:30pm. The abstract for my session is below. I hope you can make it! Modern Data Warehousing The traditional … Continue reading →
All the videos for the sessions at 24 Hours of PASS (Spring 2014) are available for free. Check the session schedule for a complete list. Also, many of the PASS virtual chapters have recordings of their meetings online. Enjoy!
Continue reading →When doing ETL, you have the choice of using T-SQL or SSIS (see When to use T-SQL or SSIS for ETL). If you decide T-SQL is the way to go and you just want to execute a bunch of T-SQL statements (individually … Continue reading →
I have a lot of books on my shelves dealing with business intelligence, data warehousing, master data management, and consulting. Below are my favorites: Data Warehouse Books: Ralph Kimball Books Building the Data Warehouse Corporate Information Factory DW 2.0 Mastering … Continue reading →
All PASS Business Analytics Conference 2014 recordings are now available. If you purchased the online sessions, to view, log on to your myPASS account, enter your activation code, and watch the sessions from myRecordings. You can also purchase all recordings on a USB … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Modern Data Warehousing” for Pragmatic Works last Thursday. The abstract for my session is below and the recording is available here. I hope you enjoyed it. Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Modern Data Warehousing Modern Data Warehousing The … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my two sessions at SQLSaturday in Houston (more info). Here are the abstracts and PowerPoint links: Best Practices to Deliver BI Solutions If your company is planning to build a data warehouse or BI solution, you … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture” at the PASS Business Analytics conference. The abstract is below. I hope you enjoyed it! Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture … Continue reading →
This upcoming Saturday I will be presenting two sessions at SQLSaturday in Houston (more info). I hope to see you there. Here are the abstracts: Best Practices to Deliver BI Solutions If your company is planning to build a data … Continue reading →
I see a lot of confusion when it comes to Hadoop and its role in a data warehouse solution. Hadoop should not be a replacement for a data warehouse, but rather should augment/complement a data warehouse. Hadoop and a data warehouse … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Modern Data Warehousing” at the PASS SQLSaturday Business Analytics edition in Dallas. The abstract is below. Great turnout for the last session of the day! Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Modern Data Warehousing Modern Data Warehousing The traditional … Continue reading →
I will be presenting the session “Modern Data Warehousing” on Saturday at the PASS SQLSaturday Business Analytics edition in Dallas at 4:30pm CST (info). The abstract for my session is below. I hope you can make it! Modern Data Warehousing The traditional … Continue reading →
Analytics Platform System (APS) is simply a renaming of the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW). It is not really a new product, but rather a name change due to a new feature in Appliance Update 1 (AU1) of PDW. That new … Continue reading →
Microsoft’s PDW has seen a big boost in visibility and sales over the past year, and part of the reason is due to frequent upgrades to the hardware and software. About every six months there is an appliance update, which … Continue reading →