The year is finally coming to a close and it has been a really busy but amazing year.

I am looking forward to what will be happening in the Microsoft BI space next year, with the release of SQL Server 2016, as well as I have no doubt that there are a great things planned for Power BI.

Power BI – IOS Power BI App for SSRS

Whilst this is not the most amazing picture that there has been with regards to Power BI, I do think that this is a rather significant thing to mention.

The reason being is that this is the first time that we are starting to see the integration of Power BI and SQL Server (On-Premise) becoming one mobile application. Which is what was in the roadmap that was presented by Microsoft a few months ago.

In my opinion I do see that as next year continues we will see more features integrated. Which I personally think will be really great. What this will mean is that for people on the go, or who want to have a quick view of the data or information, it will always be at their fingertips. They will no longer have to have to log into multiple locations or have multiple mobile applications. They can open one mobile app, and then see the information that they need to see immediately.

I really am looking forward to see how this evolves next year.

If you have an iPhone you can find the updated app here: Microsoft Power BI – iTunes

Power BI – Enterprise Gateway

I am really pleased to see that they have moved so quickly with regards to getting the Enterprise Gateway for Power BI to support both Multi-Dimensional and Tabular models of SSAS. As well as already providing the support for SQL Server direct connectivity. As well as to SAP HANA.

I my opinion I do think that Microsoft is moving in the right direction and starting to provide some functionality for some of their Enterprise customers. And this is one tool that I know will be used to make the administration and access to in premise data sources that much easier.

As well as something that I will be using in the future.

You can find out the details here: Power BI Gateway Enterprise now supports live connections to Analysis Services and SAP HANA

Power BI – Printing

Just a quick note that they now have made it really easy to print your Power BI reports directly from Power BI.

Power BI – AT Internet Content Pack

Here is another great content pack from Microsoft. This time it is related to AT Internet, which help you get insights with your data. And this is yet another valuable content pack that can help its customers and potentially yourself quickly gain the insights to the information you have, to get the best return.

You can find more information here: Explore your AT Internet data in Power BI

SQL Server 2016 – eBook

Microsoft released this eBook, which I personally thought was the perfect timing. With a lot of people being on holidays it did mean that we have the time to read the book.

I downloaded it onto my mobile device, and while I did not read every single page, I did read most of the book. And I thought it was a great read. Not too technical, but it did give a lot of information on the sections that they put into the book. I was particularly interested in the Row Level Security (which I found in my mind has a similar implementation to SSAS), the Stretch Database (which I can foresee being used for large old data sets that are still required to be online, but not accessed frequently) and then Reporting Services.

I did read the entire Reporting Services section, and I enjoyed reading about the printing and how they have finally removed the Active X control. As well as the option to Export to Power Point, which I think a lot of people have been doing manually in the past. As well as other sections which I have read in separate blog posts in the past (Pining SSRS reports to Power BI, New Chart Types)

You can find out the information here: Free eBook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2016: Mission-Critical Applications, Deeper Insights, Hyperscale Cloud, Preview Edition

And you can download it from here: Free eBook – Printable Copy

SQL Server 2016 – Mobile Report Publisher

It was great to see that Microsoft was able to meet their own deadline and have another release of SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.2 which included the new SSRS features.

And as we can see from the picture above they have incorporated the SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher, as well as the application to download and install. Along with this there is also a great blog post by Christopher Finlan which walks you through how to get this up and running.

You can find out all the details here: Mobile Report Publisher preview now available