FREE #PowerBI Webinar @PragmaticWorks Training on the T's Tomorrow!

I'll be doing a new session, "Introduction to Power BI Designer" tomorrow at 11am ET as part of the Pragmatic Works Training on the T's series of FREE webinars! Please register at the link above and see how the new Power BI Designer that is currently in preview works and what I expect it means for the future of BI at Microsoft (I even do a little bit of a look back for those that aren't up on the latest with Power BI).

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the session tomorrow morning. Look for another post later this week with the link to the slides and answering any questions from the session that I don't get to in the session.

Update 5/4 - Thanks to everyone that attended this session on 4/23, below are some of the questions that I didn't get a chance to answer during the webinar.

Can data refresh be scheduled?
With the new Power BI it will depend on which level you subscribe to. For the free version you can schedule refreshes only once a day, but the Pro level will allow you to schedule updates for every hour.

You demo'd the Power BI Designer desktop application, is there an online web-based version?
Yes, they are planning on making a web version available on PowerBI.com at the time of release. This is my guess is to why the roll out of features in Power BI Designer has been a bit slower, because they are making sure that all of this code can be run on both the desktop and web applications.

Power BI Designer Preview is only available as a 64bit application, will there be a 32bit version?
No, Microsoft has made it clear that a lot of the issues with the current Power BI Excel add-ons being allowed to run in 32bit. 64bit gives the stability to run the millions/billions of rows of data in the application in memory.

What is the difference between Power Query and Power BI Designer?
Power Query is the add-on that currently runs in Excel only. For Power BI Designer Microsoft is taking much of the functionality from Power Query and integrating it into that tool. In the end Microsoft will probably stop updating Power Query for Excel and make the newest versions only work in Power BI Designer, this is already apparent in some of the SaaS sources that they are adding which are all not available in Power Query.

What data types are supported in Power BI Designer?
The types available are changing with new versions of the Power BI Designer, but as of the April 2015 release, this link provides the full list and some great detail on how to convert between them in DAX (thanks to the attendee that posted this link in the chat).

How is security managed?
Microsoft is saying right now that the full version will support integration with Active Directory, what we have not heard is if that is on-premise and/or Azure. As of right now the only source that fully works with built in security is when you use a SSAS Tabular model and the Power BI Analysis Services Connector Preview. I would assume that in future updates before release that this connector will be upgraded to work with SSAS Multi-Dimensional models as well, but there is no timetable on when that will be. With some of the announcements at Microsoft Ignite today, I can see how the new Azure services for integration with Active Directory will be used to fill in this gap in some way.

Can you clarify what can be done locally at no cost and what?
When you use Power BI Designer you can use all of the sources that it currently connects to as long as you are able to access those sources (for SQL Server you will need to be on the same domain or be able to access them). All of the manipulations of the data that you do to those sources (remove columns, rename columns, merge datasets together) is all stored and is repeatable as it is stored in the M language. This will allow you to update locally in Power BI Designer as much as you want inside the application (that might change when the full version is released). You can build reports on those models that you create, there is no limit to the number of reports you can build (at least currently). Once you have all of that setup the way that you want it can be saved to your local file system as a PBIX file and that file can be shared with others and viewed/updated in the Power BI Designer as long as they also have the required access to the data sources you setup. As far as we know that is all going to be free. It is only when you need to push the solution up to the PowerBI.com site that you start getting into being charged and if you need to have the refresh of data scheduled once they are deployed to the web. As far as I know you can pass around PBIX files to anyone and as long as they have Power BI Designer and access to those data sources you can use it for free!

Can the Power BI reports be imported into SharePoint?
Unknown at this time, I don't think that Microsoft is going to forget about allowing this kind of BI/Analytics in SharePoint. I would not be surprised if by the full release they have a way to deploy these PBIX solutions into SharePoint in some way. Or a 3rd party vendor will find a way to parse the XML in the PBIX file and make that happen.

How is it different from SSIS?
Power BI Designer does not have all of the functionality that SSIS has, by design. Power BI Designer is meant for more of Business Analyst/Power User role. I expect over time that more a more functionality will be added to Power BI Designer to the point that it can do 90+% of what SSIS does, so then only the really complex ETL will need to be passed on to IT to do it in SSIS.

Can we connect to SAP DATA and other data providers?
Microsoft is constantly adding new built-in connectors for different databases so it is very possible. If that data source can be connected to via ODBC, that is a built-in provider that could be used as well.

Can you use multiple data sources in the same project?
Definitely! That is one of the major benefits of using this tool is that you can pull data in from as many different sources as you want and then join them together as required. As time goes on they should be able to do better auto-detection of the joins between data sources like Power Query can do today.

Can you import web data and then after making the changes upload to your own SQL Server?
There is no out of the box way to do that type of export in Power BI Designer today, but if you used the current Power Query Excel add-on then you could make the necessary updates to the data from multiple sources and then either import the resulting data via Excel/CSV exports or just upload the model created as an SSAS Tabular model. At this point we don't know if there will be the ability to create the model in Power BI Designer and upload the model into SSAS Tabular or not, but I would not be surprised to see that in the full release.

We are looking at using this for some very confidential data. How can I use this internally and not push anything out to the world?
If you want to share the PBIX files from Power BI Designer, that will work for moving the data/reports around internally. There is no requirement to use the PowerBI.com website and that is where the costs come into play as well. Not sure about future plans to integrate with SharePoint, but I would assume that is coming as well.

Thanks again to those that attended this webinar, I will continue to update this post when videos are posted. If you want to replay the entire webinar, just go to this link on the Pragmatic Works site. Thanks also to Pragmatic Works for letting me do this webinar!

SQLSaturday OC (Huntington Beach) #sqlsatoc

This last weekend I was in California for an extended weekend with my family at Disneyland and Huntington Beach to participate in the Orange County/Huntington Beach SQLSaturday! Awesome weather and great times visiting Disneyland and the Huntington Beach/LA area. I finally got to cross off visiting the Griffith Observatory from my list of todos in LA, it was quite the hike from where we had to park, but worth it for the view and the amazing show in the planetarium.

Back to the Huntington Beach SQLSaturday, thanks to the great crew there in the OC on putting on another successful event! For the first time I did 2 presentations at this SQLSaturday and both of them went very well with great interaction from the attendees that helped make the session extra informative for everyone there. Below I have posted the links to download the slides and demo materials from both presentations.

    

Thanks again to everyone that came out and I look forward to making my way back to the LA area again in the future!

Next SQLSaturday for me will be Atlanta on May 16th!

Denver SQL Server User Group March 2015 #denversql

Thanks to everyone that attended my "Near Real-Time Data Warehouse Updates with CDC and SSIS" presentation at the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting last night. For anyone that wants my slides and demo scripts, you can download them from the link below:



Thanks again and I hope to see you all again at a future Denver SQL Server User Group meeting!

Boulder SQL Server User Group March 2015 #bouldersql

I had a great time presenting to the Boulder SQL Server User Group last night, thanks to Mark Tillman and Paul Paiva for having me present "Change Data Capture (CDC) and SSIS". Lots of great interaction from the attendees. For anyone that wants my slides and demo scripts, you can download them from this link:



Thanks again to everyone from the Boulder SQL Server User Group and the attendees that came out last night!

Presenting at Colorado User Groups! #sqlfamily #sqlpass

I will be presenting at both the Boulder SQL Server User Group and Denver SQL Server User Groups next week! I'm looking forward to doing my Change Data Capture (CDC) with SSIS talk at both groups. I've been doing this talk at SQLSaturdays across the country, but this will be the first time that I have done it in Colorado since April 2014 at SQLSaturday #297 in Colorado Springs.

For more details about the Boulder SQL Server User Group meeting on Wednesday, March 18th at 5:30pm and to RSVP, please visit their Meetup.com website.

For more details on the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting on Thursday, March 19th at 5:30pm, please visit denversql.org.

Looking forward to meeting all of you that can make it out to Boulder and/or Denver on Wednesday and/or Thursday next week!

Power BI Designer Preview Updates! #PowerBI

Microsoft just posted an announcement on the Power BI blog that there is a new version of the Power BI Designer Preview today! Below is a summary of the updates:

1. Performance improvements
2. Dynamics CRM Online connector
3. Navigator Dialog improvements:
4. New Transformations:
• Age and Subtract operations for Date/Time columns 
• Aggregate Columns: Option to disable new columns’ prefix
5. Field List improvements:
• Expand/Collapse tables
• Hide/Unhide fields
• Optimized layout (spacing, margins, and fonts)
6. Report Pages Navigation - Keyboarding support
7. Lots of other bug fixes

For more details on each of these updates and a video demo of the updates, visit the blog post.

If you are already running the Power BI Designer Preview, just launch the app and it will detect the updated version and take you to the website to download it or just go to this link and download/install the latest version (does not update inside the app, requires you to run the new installer to update).

Looks like there are going to be some good updates to this Preview and at a fast pace as well!

SQLSaturday Phoenix #sqlsat370 #sqlsatphoenix

I'll be traveling to Phoenix, AZ in less than 2 weeks to speak at SQLSaturday #370 on February 28th! Looking forward to going back to Phoenix again after making the trip down there a couple of years ago with the family for Phoenix Comicon (yes, I am one of those geeks that goes to Comic/Sci-Fi Conventions). Looks like I'll be able to meet up with a bunch of my Pragmatic Works friends as there is big group of them speaking along with a a few from the Colorado area as well and many others that I haven't seen since PASS Summit last year! I am currently scheduled to present "Change Data Capture (CDC) with SSIS" at 1:30pm in the Kachina room. If you are in the Phoenix area on February 28, please make sure you register for this great free event and stop by to see me! :)

Also, for anyone that is thinking about going to the PASS Business Analytics Conference on April 20-22 in Santa Clara, CA, you can use the discount code USSE27 at registration to save $150 off the current registration fee!

Big Power BI Updates!

Today Microsoft announced some very big updates to Power BI that will make it more like the product I have been hoping for since it was first announced.

First off the new PowerBI.com site has launched in Preview mode with lots of info on all of these new features.

Also today we got the Preview download of the Power BI Designer that allows for the design and viewing of Power BI solutions in a standalone application. Before you get too excited this first Preview release of the Power BI Designer only does Power Query and Power View functions, no Power Pivot or Power Map yet (hopefully those will be added in future releases). You can use existing Power Pivot models as a source, but you
will not be able to update those Power Pivot models until a future release. I think that this new application will finally give us the unified development environment we have been looking for to do Power BI solutions.

Also added today to Power BI is the Preview release of connecting to onsite SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular models. This is a Preview release as well, but can be accessed from the existing Power BI online tools and the new Power BI Designer.

Power BI Dashboards was also added to the feature list along with a few new visualizations (combo charts, fill maps, gauges, tree maps and funnel charts). A bunch of new data sources were also added with built-in support: Github, Salesforce, SendGrid, Zendesk, Dynamics CRM, and Marketo.

And the Power BI app for Apple iPad was announced that it would be available in the Apple AppStore sometime today (12/19). There was still not a link to go directly to the Apple AppStore as of late this afternoon, so this may not show up until after the new year since Apple is shutting down AppStore updates for the holidays very soon.

Reading between the lines a bit on all of this it looks like Power BI is being positioned as a full standalone application that will no longer require Excel 2010/2013, Office 365 or even SharePoint (on-prem or online). I think that this is exactly what Power BI needs to become a much more accepted application in the Enterprise and I for one am very excited about the possibilities now!

SQLSaturday #362 - Austin #sqlsataustin #sqlsat362

For my first speaking event of 2015 I'll be presenting "Capture Change and Apply It with CDC & SSIS" at SQLSaturday #362 in Austin, TX on January 31st @ 9am. Looking forward to going to a city that I have wanted to visit for many years and going back to the area where I was born (Fort Hood, TX). My family moved from Texas when I was only a few weeks old as my Dad completed his service in the Army and went back into the private sector. I'm going to be flying in early on Friday, January 30 so that I can do some sight seeing for the day.

If you are going to be in the Austin area, it would be great to see you! To register for SQLSaturday #362, just click on this link and I'll see you there!

PASS Summit 2014 #summit14 #sqlfamily

I'm back home after an amazing week in Seattle for PASS Summit 2014. Love visiting Seattle, especially when there are lots of #SQLFamily there to enjoy it with!

I got into Seattle on Sunday afternoon via train from Portland. Was the first Amtrak train that I have ever been on and was a nice relaxing ride from Seattle to Portland. I guess I thought that I would see more of the coast on the train, didn't realize that it was going more inland, still some great scenary.

The week itself went by really fast with PASS meetings on Tuesday and the conference itself starting on Wednesday. My presentation on SSDT, "What Version of SSDT do I Need?" was on Wednesday afternoon, so it was good that I got that over with early in the week. I presented this session in the first set of Lightning Talk sessions with Brent Ozar, Luke Jian, Mark Vaillancourt, Tim Radney and Craig Purnell. Was great to share the spotlight with all of these speakers in a full room and we got through all of our presentations with time for questions at the end! Tim, Craig and I were all in the same Lightning Talk session at PASS Summit 2013 as well.

Below is the updated version of my slides, with a change to the table of SSDT versions, correcting a small oversight on my part.

With the presentation out of the way I was able to enjoy the other sessions and parties throughout the week and see as many of my #SQLFamily as possible. Overall the week went very well and I'm already looking forward to PASS Summit 2015 back in Seattle on October 27 - 30!

Thanks again to everyone that attended my session and I'm looking forward to an even better 2015!