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.
[Note: The Parallel Data Warehouse has been renamed the Analytics Platform System (details)] I have heard people say that the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) is Microsoft’s best kept secret. So let me give a 10,000 foot overview on what PDW is … Continue reading →
The Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) officially supports Analysis Services as a data source, both the Multidimensional model (ROLAP and MOLAP modes) and the Tabular model (In-Memory and DirectQuery modes). The big benefit of using ROLAP or DirectQuery is you get real-time query access … Continue reading →
Those of you who use SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) are likely familiar with the “bible” for designing cubes: Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services by Marco Russo, Alberto Ferrari , and Chris Webb. Well, a new … Continue reading →
Hadoop was created by the Apache foundation as an open-source software framework capable of processing large amounts of heterogeneous data-sets in a distributed fashion (via MapReduce) across clusters of commodity hardware on a storage framework (HDFS). Hadoop uses a simplified programming model. The … Continue reading →
There are two flavors of HDInsight: Windows Azure HDInsight Service and Microsoft HDInsight Server for Windows (recently quietly killed but lives on in a different form). Both were developed in partnership with Hadoop software developer and distributor Hortonworks and were made … Continue reading →
In a follow-up to my blog post Low-rate recruiters – The bane of my existence, Michael Bramante (website) wrote me a hilarious email that I wanted to share, with his permission. I have had many similar experiences as his: I’ve … Continue reading →
PolyBase is a new technology that integrates Microsoft’s MPP product, SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW), with Hadoop. It is designed to enable queries across relational data stored in PDW and in non-relational Hadoop data that is stored in the Hadoop Distributed File … Continue reading →
I have been an independent consultant (IC) for quite a while now. In an amazing number of coincidences, or just plain fate, in a matter of 17 days I went from hearing about a job opening at Microsoft to accepting … Continue reading →
Microsoft has announced today the general availability of Power BI for Office 365! Microsoft describes it as: Power BI for Office 365 is a complete self-service Business Intelligence (BI) solution delivered through Excel and Office 365 providing you with data discovery, analysis, and … Continue reading →
On February 5, 2014 business intelligence experts took to the virtual stage for the 24 Hours of PASS: Business Analytics Edition to deliver a series of one-hour webcasts, digging deep into the world of business analytics. All session recordings and slide presentations … Continue reading →
I have had a few questions like this: “I was wondering if there is a reason the vendor/broker/head hunter forces a contractor to go on W2? As per many vendors, lots of big banks are insisting that contractors should be … Continue reading →
The SSDT January 2014 release has been updated to support both SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse Appliance Update 1 (AU1) and continues to support SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse. This release of SSDT is now PDW version-aware, and … Continue reading →
Pricing for Power BI for Office 365 has been announced (see pricing). It’s all very confusing to me but Melissa Coates does a great job explaining it (see Initial Pricing for Power BI Has Been Announced). More info: Microsoft pins a price … Continue reading →
I have previously blogged that I am presenting at the PASS Business Analytics Conference. If you are looking to learn more about business intelligence and data warehousing, there is no better conference out there. And if you are looking to meet people … Continue reading →
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 →