Once again this week there has been a lot of activity in the BI space. Which is great and is definitely keeping me on my toes!

SQL Server 2016 – CTP 3.1 & SSAS Tabular

This week Microsoft released a small update to SQL Server 2016, and one of the features that I am looking forward to testing is upgrading an existing SSAS Tabular project to SQL Server 2016.

I am hoping that there will be some performance improvements, as well as making it easier to use the model now that it is based on JSON.

There were some additional updates that were released as part of the SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 which will be in the links below:

You can find out about the Analysis Services Updates here: What’s new for SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services in CTP3.1

And you can find out about what is new in SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 here: SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 3.1 is available

Power BI – Cortana Insights

Once again the Microsoft amazing machine has released a whole host of changes since last week.

The first one that I am going to talk about here is the integration with Cortana. I think that this is a good move, as it seems that the world is moving towards using speech to do things, instead of having to type things out.

This is also another great wow factor for showing how powerful Power BI will be. And this means another way to quickly and easily find out insights from your data.

I also have no doubt that this will link up with the Cortana Analytics suite and will make things even easier in the future.

You can read all about it here: Announcing Power BI integration with Cortana and new ways to quickly find insights in your data

Power BI – Mobile App Update

Once again there is another batch of updates to the Power BI App, which is great to see. I know personally from my side that this will be used a great deal going forward.

What I like about this update is that they are focusing on both the iPhone and Android platforms. The one thing that still amazes me that they do not have an app for their Windows Phone which I would think would be good to have.

Along with this having the charts showing a more detail I think is the way to go. The resolution of the phone screens are often higher than what you can get on many monitors. So it can easily and clearly visualize your data and insights.

The other feature that I also like is the welcome page, as often people who are starting to use the app or are wanting to find information often need a starting point from which they can navigate from. I think this is especially the case when there is the potential to have a lot of dashboards. And this would make the experience seamless.

You can find out about the Mobile Updates here: Power BI mobile apps update – November 2015

Power BI – Gateway for Enterprise Deployments

I am very excited to see that as promised or eluded to there now is a Gateway for Enterprise deployments. I can already see in my organization that potentially having to have multiple gateways installed, and then to still configure who has access to what could very quickly spiral out of control.

This is where the Enterprise gateway over time will come into it’s own. I also like the feature that you can see the usage. Which will be very useful, because in my mind if this shows the usage stats as to what cubes or SQL Servers are being used will mean we can see if it is actually being used or not at all. As well as simplifying the deployment of how we manage the connection between the cloud and on premise.

I know that right now it is in Preview as well as only allowing a direct connection to SQL Server, but I have no doubt that over time this will become the required gateway and the Analysis Services Gateway will be replaced by the Enterprise Gateway.

You can find out the details here: Announcing preview of Power BI gateway for enterprise deployments

Power BI – Bing Content Pack

The Bing Content pack is a genius creation from the Power BI Team.

And the reason that I say this, is due to the fact that you can use any search term and it can quickly show you what searches have been happening relating to your search term. As well as showing some related news information.

I have already put it to use within my organization, and it just means another data source which in turn you can then use to quantify your data and what you are working on!

What I also enjoyed about this content pack is it is something you can put into use with immediate effect. It is quick and easy to get it up and running.

You can find out about the Bing Content Pack here: Search Analytics from Bing on your Power BI Dashboards

Power BI – API Updates

There are some great updates for the Power BI API, and whilst I am no developer it does mean that for the development team that I work closely with we can easily and quickly take our Power BI Reports and dashboards and integrate them into our existing applications.

This will mean that we can leverage all the hard work that we have done and have it in an application. Which then means that there is no need for the users to leave their application. As well as having the functionality that Power BI brings to the table.

The new API that was released today was the “Report integration API”

You can find out all about the Power BI APIs here: Power BI for Developers: Reports API and a simple App Registration experience

Power BI – Sentiment Analysis

I came across this blog post by Patrick Leblanc and I thought this was a really amazing blog post.

It really delights me to see how there are really quick and easy ways to integrate other solutions into Power BI, which then enriches your data. And I do think that having sentiment analysis is a great tool to see how people perceive your company or your product.

You can find out how Patrick got this done by viewing his blog: Sentiment Analysis with Power BI

Data Insights Summit

I really wish that I would be able to attend the Data Insights summit.

We are planning on using Power BI as our starting point for our BI journey and I do think that these two days in March would be invaluable not only to find out directly from the Microsoft team what is currently happening, but also what is coming and what is planned for the future.

As well as having the ability to network with fellow people who are also implementing Power BI solutions.

You can find out about it here: Data Insights Summit

Power Apps

Finally, but not lastly I do think that Power Apps is going to drive and change the way we get data from different sources as well as from different content area’s into a digital format.

I can already see how we can leverage this, to make things easier and simple for the users in my organization.

The other thing that I really like is that you can create the app once, but can leverage it on all the different platforms (Web, Mobile, Tablet). And to me this means that the adoption and the use of the app will be that much better used and will ensure it succeeds.

You can read about it here: Introducing Microsoft PowerApps