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PROLOGIKA BLOG · IDEAS FROM THE FIELD

Making sense of data.
Sharing what we learn.

Practical perspectives on Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, semantic models, and the work of turning data into insight.

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How Power BI Broke Amazon

Amazon started in 1994 as an online marketplace for books. You'd think that after being in this business for almost 30 years, they've figured out the book ecommerce inside out. Unfortunately, rapid revisions (I revise annually my Power BI book) break their model. Every new revision wreaks havoc in the customer experience to purchase a book and punishes the publisher. Here is what I've learned…

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Power BI Dynamic M Query Parameters Reloaded

In a previous blog from October 2020, I ranted about the narrow list of data sources supported by Power BI Dynamic M query parameters. The February 2022 update of Power BI Desktop expanded the feature reach to relational data sources, such as SQL Server (all flavors), Oracle, Teradata, and SAP. This warranted a second look to see where we're now and where we're going. Dynamic…

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Azure Data Engineer Badge Acquired

Just passed the Microsoft DP-203 exam and added yet another badge to my certification portfolio. This certification is one of the requirements for partners to maintain Microsoft Gold Data Analytics Competency, so I'm glad to take this off my list.

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Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on February 7th

Please join us online for the next Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group meeting on Monday, February 7th, at 6:30 PM ET.  Your humble correspondent will show you different techniques to implement scorecards with Power BI. For more details and sign up, visit our group page. Download the presentation assets here. Presentation: Implementing Scorecards Date: February 7th Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM ET Place:…

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DirectQuery Performance Progression

So much data, so little budget! Caching data in Power BI gives you the best report performance, but budget constraints usually put downward pressure to stay within lower Power BI Premium premium plans. So, what to do? Split large models. Remember that Power BI Premium Gen2 grants each dataset a 25 GB memory quota. I'm actually a big proponent for consolidated organizational semantic models, but…

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Azure Learning Path

I'm preparing for the new Azure Data Engineer exam, which is one of options to maintain a Gold Certification for Data Analytics for MS partners that has to be renewed annually. I'm really impressed by the Azure Learning Path self-paced environment that Microsoft put together. The training material is top-notch, and I actually learn some practical and useful stuff from the covered topics on ADLS,…

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Applied Power BI Book (7th Edition)

Happy New Year! I'm excited to announce the availability of the seventh edition of my Applied Microsoft Power BI book! When the first edition was published  in January 2016, it was the first Power BI book at that time and it had less than 300 pages. Since then, I helped many companies adopt or transition to Power BI and taught hundreds of students. It's been…

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Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on January 3rd

Please join us online for the next Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group meeting on Monday, January 3rd, at 6:30 PM ET.  Paul Turley will show us how to integrate Power BI with paginated (SSRS) reports. And your humble correspondent will update you on the Power BI latest.  For more details and sign up, visit our group page. Presentation: Power BI Paginated Reports: The…

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Power BI Hybrid Tables

A while back a client wanted to avoid importing a large snapshot fact table with loan balances because its memory footprint would require them to upgrade to a higher Power BI premium plan. This of course required leaving the table in DirectQuery mode at the expense of query performance. Luckily, most users would be interested in the latest six months of data. To speed up…

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Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on December 6th

Please join us online for the next Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group meeting on Monday, December 6th, at 6:30 PM ET.  To finish the year at a high note, the famous Guys in the Cube (Patrick and Adam) will tell us how keep the data fresh in Power BI. And your humble correspondent will update you on the Power BI latest.  For more…

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