Catch Up: SQL Server for the BI Professional
By Chris Testa-O'Neill, SQLBits
This year’s SQLBits - Europe’s largest Microsoft Data Platform conference - is the UK official launch event for SQL Server 2016.
On May 4th- 7th, the Liverpool Exhibition Centre will see members of the Microsoft SQL Server and Azure product group join over 1600 fellow data professionals in 4 days of immersive content. The presentations will include the new features in the upcoming release of SQL Server 2016 and Azure. There will also be sessions on the optimisation, configuration and best practise sessions of previous releases of the technology. So if you are still using SQL Server 2008 R2, there will be sessions that are still relevant to you back at work.
In this article, I was asked to provide a list of videos that can help you to catch up on the top three new features of SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 from a BI perspective.
SQL Server 2012
1. Data Quality Services (DQS)
Introduced in SQL Server 2012, DQS is a knowledge-driven solution that provides both computer-assisted and interactive ways to manage the integrity and quality of your data sources. SQLBits very own Allan Mitchell takes you through the DQS functionality as it was released
Marco Russo takes you on a journey of a the new platform and technology for performing data analysis in SQL Server Analysis Services using the column based Vertipaq engine for in memory analytics
Improved logging functionality was provided as SQL Server Integration services moved to a new deployment model. Jamie Thomson shows you how you can leverage the Catalog to impove your debugging and monitoring of SSIS data loads
SQL Server 2014
1. Increased DAX Support for Tabular Data Models
Data Expression Language (DAX) was greatly improved to support a wider range of functions to query Tabular Data Models. Alberto Ferrari explores how you can optimise DAX to improve query performance through a range of techniques
2. PowerView support for Multidimensional Cubes
Chris Web explores how PowerView can be used to query both Tabular Data Models and Multidimensional Cubes in Analysis Services
Provided to ease the management and development of SQL Server databases such as a Data Warehouse. Jamie Thomson shares real world experience of using these tools in the wild.
---
We hope we see you in Liverpool in May for the SQL Server 2016 Launch event. You can register here and receive a further 5% discount if you use the code SQL-3E0842 at checkout.
By Chris Testa-O’Neill , Data Platform MVP and founder & Principal Consultant at Claribi. Chris is a regular speaker on the international SQL Server conference circuit, and an organiser of SQLBits and SQLRelay. He has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) for the past 16 years, having both authored and delivered Microsoft official courses.