SQL Saturday 642 – Sofia

I was lucky enough to get selected as one of the speakers for SQL Saturday 642 in Sofia this year.
Let’s do a quick review of my session and some sessions I visited.

Enabling Citizen Data Science with Microsoft

As a speaker you’re lucky enough to teach people what you know and experienced but also to get feedback from people in your session.
For the people who haven’t seen or heard my session before and who can’t make any sense from the abstract, I’ll slowly be blogging my entire session over the coming weeks. The very short version is: that while data science has become somewhat of a buzz word and a lot of people suddenly want that title. As BI Developers, Analysts, etc. it often is hard to know where to start. I guide you Microsoft’s 3 month long self-paced Data Science course, which covers theory and practice. And I cover the tools you need to get started.

I included the new Azure Machine Learning Services in my slides. Mainly because it’s new and actually very useful.
And one of the things I learned from my audience is that Microsoft’s announcement of these services is actually a bit confusing for people who are getting started. They now get the impression that this is something they NEED. While incredibly useful, when starting out it’s more important to get the basics right instead of trying to perfect the entire lifecycle.


Other very popular sessions were the “Database Continuous Delivery on the Microsoft Platform” by Gavin Campbell (blog | twitter) and “PowerBI for Rookies” by Miroslav Dimitrov.

Gavin Campbell talked about the theory, practice and different parts that make up a Continuous Deployment pipeline. From dacpac’s to version control to testing, building and onto automatically releasing your database.
Basically a must see session for everyone who’s developing databases.

Miroslav Dimitrov guided his huge audience through everything anyone would need to get started with Power BI.
From getting data, to creating a report and publishing a dashboard. Beyond that he talked about some security aspects and cool features like for example QuickInsights and publishing to the web.


Apart from these sessions there of course was a lot of food and enough drinks to be had by all the speakers who gathered on friday and saturday evening.  For me those tend to be the most memorable of an entire event because there’s always people at the table that I look up to.
This time I had the honor of sitting next to Dejan Sarka (blog | twitter) who’s advanced sessions at conferences and even pluralsight courses will teach something to even the smartest people (but also give them a headache because of the difficulty).

Lastly there’s the non-technical things I learn from people and speaking during dinner or the conference itself.

 

So thank you to the entire SQL Saturday Sofia team for organizing this great event and ensuring everyone had a great time.
For everyone who hasn’t attended one of these yet, start doing it! SQL Saturday’s, other conferences and user group meetings both virtual and real life are a good way to learn more and to get to know new people.

 

Data science with Microsoft – Training materials

Today I’ll be guiding you through the, sometimes very busy, world of Microsoft training material.
We’ll put the focus on the training material for data science.

Expect everything you need to become fluent with Microsoft’s Data science solutions.

  • Free training courses with certificates
  • Free webinars & recordings of live sessions
  • Free (e-)books
  • Documentation & Learning Paths
  • Microsoft Virtual Academy

Read on for the good stuff!

Read moreData science with Microsoft – Training materials

Microsoft Foundation Sessions at PASS Summit 2015

This years PASS Summit has seen some of the biggest announcements in SQL Server and Microsoft Business Intelligence history.

  • We’ve finally gotten a clear vision where Microsoft is heading.
    And it even makes sense!
  • Microsoft already was the leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Operational Database Management Systems
    But SQL Server 2016 will bring even more improvements.
  • In the past year, Power BI has gone from “OK” to “Nice” to “Wooooooooow“.
    With all the new announcements, it seems like Microsoft is not even taking it’s foot of the throttle.
  • Cortana Analytics Suite is Microsoft’s way to help you get insight and take action on your data.
    It’s basically everything you need for your Data Science scenario’s.

Below are some Microsoft Foundation sessions from the PASS Summit that talk about these products and what you can expect from them, now and in the future.

If you’re interested in just a list of features, check out Chris Webb’s blog post about the announcements.


Business Intelligence


Advanced Analytics


Big Data and Data Warehousing


Developing Modern Applications on Azure

 


Video’s via http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2015/PASStv/Microsoft.aspx

Holding off the cloud?

I’m interested to know some of the reasons you’re currently not moving your data, or at least a part of it, to the cloud.

Tell me the reason you’re not likely to use a cloud service like PowerBI.com.
Or do you know someone who’s not going to put their data in the cloud? Let me know as well!

Did you know about Power BI’s ability to connect to your on site data? And it’s ability to not put your data in the cloud? Does this want to make you adopt Power BI?

 

Seriously, tell me your reasons and I’ll do my best to address these issues in an upcoming blog post.

I want YOU to comment, tweet, hit me up on LinkedIn, or use whatever method suits you the best. Just let me know the reason (or reasons) you’re currently holding off the boat on adopting “the cloud” for your data analytics.

Let’s get this discussion going!15145-illustration-of-a-stormy-cloud-with-a-warning-symbol-pv[1]

Power BI 2.0 – Day 1: Introduction

This entry is part [part not set] of 2 in the series Power BI: Zero to hero

Power BI Logo

Power BI: Zero to Hero series
Day 1: introduction

Today we’ll look at what Power BI was, is and can be thanks to users everywhere.


In this blog series, together we’ll go from beginner to expert in Power BI as fast as humanly possible.
On our path, we’ll use Microsoft and non-Microsoft resources and we’ll try to explore what Power BI can add to an enterprise BI stack.

We’ll be using datasets like the old AdventureWorks database and any useful databases we can get from opendata initiatives.
But we’ll also explore the new data source possibilities included with Power BI.
These include web pages, OData feeds, On-Premise Tabular models and much more.

This series will be split into “days”. With each day representing a bitesize and mostly self-contained “module”.
You can either go through all the content at once or pace it 1 day at a time.
As busy as everyone is these days, it is my suggestion to go through each “day” during a lunch, a quiet evening or even in a short group session at work.

This way, together we’ll go step by step through the desktop application and the web service.
Along the way we’ll learn to work with Power BI and discover in which way, different parts can be fitted into an existing Enterprise Business Intelligence solution.

Read on to get started!


Read morePower BI 2.0 – Day 1: Introduction

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