Level: Intermediate

Andrew Brust

Senior Director, Market Strategy and Intelligence

Datameer

In this workshop we'll look at the full Microsoft BI stack, including SQL Server Analysis Services, Power BI and Excel. We'll also look at Microsoft's growing cloud Big Data and analytics stack, including HDInsight (both Hadoop and Spark), Azure Data Lake Store, Data Lake Analytics and Machine Learning. We'll explore the R programming language, and even SQL Server relational engine features like columnstore indexes and PolyBase. Perhaps most important, we'll investigate the many integrations between all of these technologies.

We'll start with the conceptual, where you'll learn what Big Data is and the fundamentals of Data Warehousing and dimensional modeling. We'll then move on to the individual technologies, starting on-premises with Excel and Analysis Services, followed by a gradual shift to mobile and the cloud with Power BI and then the full-on cloud with HDInsight and other Azure services.

Then we'll see how to mix and match technologies. Integrations like using Excel against Power BI and Analysis Services; SQL Server against HDInsight via PolyBase; HDInsight with Azure Data Lake Store; and Power BI against with SQL Server Reporting Services and numerous Azure back-ends. Plus, we'll hit on the integrations of R with SQL Server, Power BI, HDInsight and Azure Machine Learning.

Working with data isn't just about relational databases and data access anymore. It's a much bigger, more exciting world than that now. There are new challenges too, but they're not insurmountable. Take in this workshop to get past them and see the cool stuff that awaits.