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.
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 →
All PASS Summit 2012 recordings are now available for free to all PASS members (201 of them!). To view, log on to your myPASS account, and watch the sessions from myRecordings. While there, check out mine: Building an Effective Data Warehouse … Continue reading →
I am happy to say I have published my first book! It is called Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (order). Much thanks goes to my co-author and friend Bill Anton. Below is a brief overview or check out the … Continue reading →
SQL Server 2014 has been released to manufacturers (RTM) and will be generally available April 1. Here is the official announcement. Here are my blog posts about some of the new features. More info: SQL Server 2014 RTM Announced for … Continue reading →
[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 →