This is going to be a rather long or large blog post with Microsoft Ignite this week I am certain that there will be some really amazing announcements. So here we go..

Power BI – ArcGIS Maps

I am really looking forward to being able to use ArcGIS maps in Power BI. And not only will this be included in Power BI, but they have leveraged and extended the capability also.

You are able to change how it appears on the map, change the intensity of the points as well.

There is also the option to apply advanced styling properties which will enable it to display in a way that enables better analytics.

But finally they also have put in the functionality to add reference layers, which is where I see this to be a game changer. This will allow the insights derived from the ArcGIS maps to be used and viewed with more detail, but that is really easy and simple to understand.

You can find the details here: Announcing ArcGIS Maps for Power BI by Esri (Preview)

Power BI – Forthcoming Updates

And looking at this image above we can see that this is one of the most requested features. And it appears that not only will this be available in PowerPoint, but you will also have the ability to embed into SharePoint, which will be ideal for larger organizations.

As you can see above it appears that you are going to be able to share your dashboard items to a whole host of additional links as shown above. Which is great to see.

Above is taken from when you use the Publish to Web functionality in Power BI. And there now is the ability to share this in other online area’s

Power BI – Intune MAM iOS App

As you can see from the image above the Power BI Mobile App team has been very busy implementing the Microsoft Intune MAM onto the iOS app. This is great to see, because not only are businesses or organizations wanting to ensure that their data is secure in the cloud, but also secure on the people’s mobile devices.

And they have put in some great functionality, which will enable the businesses or organizations to be able to better manage how Power BI is used and secured on the mobile device.

And as mentioned in the blog post, it will be coming to Android soon.

You can find the details here: Enterprise ready: Power BI for iOS now supports Intune MAM capabilities

Power BI – Creating Custom Visuals based on Existing Visual

This is an interesting blog post by Jon Gallant, in which he explains how to use an existing Custom Visual to create your own Custom Visual. I will not go into any real detail, as with Jon’s blog post there is a wealth of detailed information on how to achieve this.

You can read about it here: How to Create a Power BI Custom Visual Based on an Existing d3 Visual

Power BI – Narrative Science

This has been covered in the past with regards to narratives for Power BI and they now have an additional update. It is great to see and I am sure that this will enable you to quickly find some hidden insights in your data.

You can find the blog post here: Narrative Science for Power BI driving customer success

SQL Server 2016 – CU (Component Update) 2

The guys from the SQL Server team have released a component update 2 for SQL Server 2016

As you can see above there are quite a few fixes in the Business Intelligence area.

You can find the details here: Cumulative Update 2 for SQL Server 2016

SQL Server 2016 – Embed Paginated reports into ASP.NET Web Apps

I am sure that all web developers who have used SSRS are happy to get this latest update. Now you can integrate the SSRS features via the API, which means that you can start using all the new capabilities that are available in SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services.

You can find more information here: Embed paginated reports into ASP.NET web apps using the Report Viewer 2016 control