After Episode 180 on PolyBase came out, we received a few questions on use cases for PolyBase. Compañeros, when you ask, we reply! This episode we carve out 3 use cases for PolyBase and ways in which you might change workflows based on this SQL Server 2019 feature. If you want to dive much deeper into PolyBase, you can always check out Kevin's book on Apress! The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/03/18/episode-194-polybase-use-cases. Have fun on the S...
Mar 19, 2020•34 min•Season 3Ep. 194
Our regular host is down for the count with the flu; however, the podcast must go on! In this episode, we answer a listener-submitted question about Power BI Premium. Kevin and Eugene take us through Sachin Gangwar’s questions. We hope you will submit your question for a future episode! The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/03/11/episode-193-power-bi-premium. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Mar 12, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 193
What is the future of the DBA and what technologies should I be focused on? In this episode, we attempt to look into the crystal ball and give our take on the future of work for the data platform professional. We focus our conversation around two listener-provided questions about the best way to stay educated in an ever-changing landscape. The DBA is dead. Long live the DBA. Join the discussion. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/03/04/episode-192-...
Mar 04, 2020•44 min•Season 3Ep. 192
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could filter the rows a user sees in Power BI? What’s that? You’ve already implemented Row-Level Security at the database level? Well, that actually won’t help you in Power BI. Yikes. In this episode we discuss ways to filter by records in Power BI and why it might be so confusing to implement what at first glance seems like a straightforward request. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/02/12/episode-191-power-bi-row-level...
Feb 12, 2020•21 min•Season 3Ep. 191
Getting released just before the end of the year, SQL Server 2019 is now available in general release. While at first glance, it appeared this release was all about Big Data Clusters, and rightfully so--it brings 'cloud first' options to on-premises scenarios; however, it is not the only big feature. We spoke about some of the Polybase changes in Episode 180 and in this episode, Javier Villegas guides us as we dive into some of the performance enhancements--and run out of time. This just means w...
Feb 05, 2020•46 min•Season 3Ep. 190
Moving data is fairly straightforward; however, mapping data from one source to another can be extremely challenging. In an attempt to help self-service BI users, Microsoft has introduced a Common Data Model, and in this episode, we discuss the new model. This may not be as approachable for organizations which already have a data warehouse; however, for those who are in the Microsoft suite of tools and looking to report on that data in Power BI, the Common Data Model may be the jump start to get...
Jan 23, 2020•20 min•Season 3Ep. 189
A couple of years ago, Netflix offered a reward for anyone who could improve the algorithm for choosing a movie. The team that came in second took what they learned from it and created a company -- Databricks. In this episode, we focus on Databricks; why it is popular, what it can be used for, and considerations for its use. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/01/15/episode-188-databricks. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Jan 16, 2020•31 min•Season 3Ep. 188
Make it go faster! Visualizations are great, but when users start complaining about the load times on reports, it can be a tough exercise to figure out the issues. In this episode, we discuss ways you can measure the speed of your Power BI reports. We also get into some of the fundamentals of data storage for Power BI. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2020/01/08/episode-187-power-bi-performance-tuning. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Jan 08, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 187
2020 dawns a first for our podcast. This episode is dedicated entirely to a listener question. We've had questions before; however, this episode the team tackles two questions from longtime listener Trent Adams. The context of his questions surround the concepts of IT having the ability to provide new functionality to the business and the business appearing to be uninterested in moving forward. While we don't know the entire situation, we discuss the best way to identify pain points and ways to ...
Dec 27, 2019•38 min•Season 3Ep. 186
Why write a book, when you already have a site full of documentation? In this episode we chat with Rob Sewell about his project to write a book, DBATools in a Month of Lunches. He gives us some insights on what the book is about, how it is different than documentation, and how the process of making the book available in pieces has helped the creative process. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/12/19/episode-185-dbatools-in-a-month-of-lunches . Have...
Dec 19, 2019•53 min•Season 3Ep. 185
You've seen the visualizations and want to dive in--perhaps you were assigned the task. However you started with Power BI, chances are you might get stuck at some point. In this episode, we chat about strategies you can employee to help ensure success. Have a take on this? Hit us up on social media. We'd love to hear from you. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/12/11/episode-184-where-do-people-get-stuck-with-power-bi . Have fun on the SQL Trail....
Dec 12, 2019•22 min•Season 3Ep. 184
SQL Server 2019 is out and one of the most interesting additions is SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters. In this episode, Kevin Feasel covers the marriage of SQL Server and Apache Spark. We discuss what Big Data Clusters are (and how it's not a SQL Server feature or an edition of SQL Server, but a thing in itself), cover some of the architecture behind the solution, and explain how we can use them. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/12/04/episode-183...
Dec 04, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 183
The very first podcast episode I recorded was about Extended Events. We've had several new versions of SQL Server since that time, so I thought it was time to bring up the subject again. We are joined by MVP Jason Brimhall and he shares his insights on Extended Events, what has changed, and how to get started.
Nov 21, 2019•38 min•Season 3Ep. 182
In the second quarter of 2019, it was announced that Power BI would support paginated reports--at first this was assumed to be connected to an announcement that Power BI would support the RDL files from Reporting Services. The guidance however, was to continue building paginated reports in Power BI. In the fourth quarter of 2019, more information emerged about paginated reports and in this episode we drill into the offering of paginated reports in Power BI and...shhh...we won't spoil it, but an ...
Nov 13, 2019•21 min•Season 3Ep. 181
This week we heard the news of the release for SQL Server 2019 and a major focus of this release is data virtualization. In this episode, we discuss PolyBase--a topic we covered in Episode 95; however it has really come of age with SQL Server 2019. Our very own Kevin Feasel talks about some of the improvements of the feature and we discuss some of the use cases of when it will be useful and some of the pitfalls you might run into as you implement it. We discuss how PolyBase can help you reduce s...
Nov 06, 2019•37 min•Season 3Ep. 180
SQL Trail continues to be an experiment in the making and year three proved no different. Eugene joined us this year and we discuss some of the changes, how the vision has changed for the conference and what the future will hold for our event. While there is plenty to be excited about with our event, we couldn't help ourselves and get into a discussion about Power BI and purchasing options. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/10/24/episode-179-sql-t...
Oct 24, 2019•26 min•Season 3Ep. 179
After 170 episodes, we bring back Louis Davidson to talk about database design and get his thoughts on how we can get better at planning for our data. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/10/16/episode-178-database-design. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Oct 17, 2019•47 min•Season 3Ep. 178
The Lock Pages in Memory policy came up in our internal discussions. I wanted to chat about it a bit more and I couldn't think of a better person than Rick Lowe. After our recent SQL Trail, we sit down to discuss this policy option. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/10/09/episode-177-lock-pages-in-memory . Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Oct 09, 2019•21 min•Season 2Ep. 177
Creating reports in Power BI is awesome, but once you are ready to publish the reports--where are you going to store all the data? In this episode, we discuss storage options for Power BI and discuss how the version of Power BI can affect storage. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/09/25/episode-176-power-bi-storage-options/ . Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Sep 25, 2019•20 min•Season 2Ep. 176
Are you in the cloud? Lots of folks are talking about moving to the cloud; however, as we find in today's episode this can be tricky to quantify what people mean by being "in the cloud". We are happy to welcome Rick Lowe to the show and he gives his take on working with AWS. We explore what it means to move to the cloud, our experience helping companies get there, why companies would want to consider cloud options, and how you can keep up with all the craziness of new technologies in the cloud. ...
Sep 18, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 175
Jul 24, 2019•2 min
What do you do when you want to use the Visualizations of Power BI but management doesn't want to send company data to the cloud? Well, you can implement Power BI Report Server! In this episode we discuss the differences in architecture with the on-premises version of Power BI along with the limitations and options this version brings. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/06/26/episode-174-power-bi-report-server . Have fun on the SQL Trail!...
Jun 27, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 174
As the data platform continues to evolve, so do certifications. In this episode we chat with Rick Heiges about the new role-based certifications and how they fit into Microsoft's cloud platform. We revisit how certifications still play a role in career development and how certifications have changed. Also, Kevin gives us his experience with taking an exam at home. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/06/12/episode-173-new-data-certifications. Have fu...
Jun 12, 2019•37 min•Season 2Ep. 173
From a SQL Server perspective we have many ways to identify problem areas. In this episode, we discuss ways to diagnose performance issues in Power BI. They are certainly making many strides; however, the tools won't feel as mature as they do in SQL Server. We review usage metrics, audit logs, the new Data Gateway monitoring tool and monitoring options in Power BI Premium. The Performance Analyzer had just been released and while we don't go into great detail, we'll be sure to include it in the ...
Jun 05, 2019•24 min•Season 2Ep. 172
You’ve got first name, last name, full name, birth date, address, email, phone, tax ID or Social Security Number, driver’s license number, medical evaluation notes, MAC address, and IP address columns in a table. So, what would you encrypt in this table? In this episode, our guest, Tom Norman discusses various encryption options and how he goes about choosing what to encrypt. As there are more and more security breaches, the ability to encrypt data is as important as ever. The show notes for tod...
May 22, 2019•33 min•Season 2Ep. 171
Two years ago blogger Jay Killeen observed, "And with modern languages and modern applications such as PowerBI and Power Query you should be safe to assume there would be modern tooling. You would be wrong." In this episode, Eugene and I explore the challenges with Devops in Power BI and some ways we and others have implemented to help us deal with versions and team development of reports. Companeros, you can also win a SQL Data Partners T-shirt if you post on social media using the hashtag #sql...
May 15, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 170
These are dark times. Drastic measures must be taken. In this episode, we talk about--coding. *Queue scary music* Last year I bumped into Sean McCown and found out he had coded himself a GUI for his MinionWare product. This left me both impressed and stumped. We talk with Sean, Eugene, and Kevin about why they decided to learn a coding language and I give some of my hesitations for not picking up a coding book. The show notes can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/05/08/episode-169-shou...
May 08, 2019•44 min•Season 2Ep. 169
One of the great abilities we have with Power BI is connecting to multiple data sources. Authors can actually publish data sources for others to use in their reports. Developers then get to mix and match our reports with all that data; however, there will be times we don't want everyone to see all the data sources. In today's episode, we discuss Power BI privacy levels, what they are and what they can--and can't do for you. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartner...
May 01, 2019•20 min•Season 2Ep. 168
Azure SQL Data Sync has been generally available for almost a year now. Have you heard of it? Are you using it? Microsoft's page tell us that "Data Sync is useful in cases where data needs to be kept up-to-date across several Azure SQL databases or SQL Server databases." When you want to learn about a new product or feature, who better to ask than the Senior Project Manager in charge of it? Today we chat about Azure SQL Data Sync with Xiaochen Wu from Microsoft. He explains how it works, why you...
Apr 25, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 167
The number one reason organizations choose Power BI is the ability to visualize data; however, even with all the immediate choices, many report developers desire to create custom visualizations. In this episode, we chat about custom visualizations for Power BI: how to get them, how to pick them, and when (if ever) you would consider building your own. Have a favorite custom visualization you have used? Let us know! The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/201...
Apr 17, 2019•29 min•Season 2Ep. 166
