Atlanta BI fans, please join us for the next meeting on Tuesday, July 11th, at 6:30 PM ET. Stacey Jones (Cross Solution Architect at Microsoft) will join us in person to present OpenAI and Copilot. Your humble correspondent will demo the newly released PBI Desktop project format. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE TO OUR MEETING POLICY. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, WE ARE DISCONTINUING ONLINE MEETINGS VIA TEAMS. THIS GROUP MEETS ONLY IN PERSON. WE WON’T RECORD MEETINGS ANYMORE. THEREFORE, AS DURING THE PRE-PANDEMIC TIMES, PLEASE RSVP AND ATTEND IN PERSON IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS MEETING.
Presentation: Azure OpenAI – Answers to Your Natural Language Questions
Date: July 11th (Please note that because of the July 4th holiday, this meeting is on Tuesday)
Time: 18:30 – 20:30 ET
Level: Intermediate
Food: As of now, food won’t be available for this meeting. We are welcoming suggestions for a sponsor.
Agenda:
18:15-18:30 Registration and networking
18:30-19:00 Organizer and sponsor time (events, Power BI latest, sponsor marketing)
19:00-20:15 Main presentation
20:15-20:30 Q&A
ONSITE
Improving Office
11675 Rainwater Dr
Suite #100
Alpharetta, GA 30009
Overview: We will overview and explore Azure OpenAI, a fusion of OpenAI with the Azure cloud. Understand what OpenAI and CoPilot are as well as how they can help you with your natural language questions. We will also address questions about AI, such as will AI take over the world?
Speaker: Stacey Jones is a Cross Solution Architect specializing in all things Data, AI and Power BI. He is Evangelist at Microsoft’s Technology Center (MTC) in Atlanta, GA. He has 30+ years of industry experience in technology management spanning data architecture, data modeling, database development, tuning, and administration in both Oracle and SQL Server. He is active on LinkedIn and has plenty of real-life experience putting out database performance fires.
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-07-05 07:41:242023-07-05 07:41:24Atlanta Microsoft BI Group Meeting on July 11th (Azure OpenAI – Answers to Your Natural Language Questions)
Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, June 5th, at 6:30 PM ET. Kristyna Hughes (Senior data & analytics consultant at 3Cloud will join us remotely and share best practices for dissecting a complicated and broken Power BI report and a checklist of how to fix it. Improving will sponsor the meeting. Your humble correspondent will demonstrate how Power BI can integrate better with SharePoint and OneDrive. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
WE NOW MEET BOTH IN-PERSON AND ONLINE. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE AND BECAUSE AN EMPTY AUDIENCE IS DISCOURAGING TO SPEAKERS AND SPONSORS. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE HERE.
PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING AND PLAN TO EAT
Presentation: How to Fix an Inherited Power BI Report
Date: June 5th
Time: 18:30 – 20:30 ET
Place: Onsite and online
Level: Intermediate
Food: Food and drinks will be available for this meeting
Agenda:
18:15-18:30 Registration and networking
18:30-19:00 Organizer and sponsor time (events, Power BI latest, sponsor marketing)
Overview: A common request in the realm of reporting is “hey, we have this report that a previous VIP used, but the report is really slow and the new VIP would like to revamp the report to answer their questions”. Great, you think, I can knock this out no problem! Then, you open the report. Fifty tables, over a hundred measures, and six calculated tables later you start to panic.
This session will go into best practices for dissecting a complicated report and a checklist for quick wins. No need to panic, this session will help build a toolbelt to tackle any reconstruction project.
Speaker: Kristyna Hughes is a senior data & analytics consultant at 3Cloud. Her experience includes implementing and managing enterprise-level Power BI instance, training teams on reporting best practices, and building templates for scalable analytics. Passionate about participating and growing the data community, she enjoys co-writing on Data on Wheels (dataonwheels.com) and has recently co-founded Data on Rails (dataonrailsblog.com). She also is on the board of directors for PASS MN and is a co-organizer for Lexington Data Technology Group.
Sponsor: Improving
Sponsor: TBD
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-05-29 13:55:072023-05-29 13:55:07Atlanta Microsoft BI Group Meeting on June 5th (How to Fix an Inherited Power BI Report)
Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, May 1st, at 6:30 PM ET. Akshata Revankar (Data Engineer, Specialist at McKinsey & Company) will show you how to leverage Power BI deployment pipelines to promote content changes between environments, such as DEV and PROD. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
WE NOW MEET BOTH IN-PERSON AND ONLINE. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE AND BECAUSE AN EMPTY AUDIENCE IS DISCOURAGING TO SPEAKERS AND SPONSORS. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE HERE.
PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING AND PLAN TO EAT
Presentation: Getting started with Power BI Deployment Pipelines Date: May 1st Time: 18:30 – 20:30 ET Place: Onsite and online Level: Intermediate Food: Food and drinks will be available for this meeting
Agenda:
18:15-18:30 Registration and networking
18:30-19:00 Organizer and sponsor time (events, Power BI latest, sponsor marketing)
19:00-20:15 Main presentation
20:15-20:30 Q&A
ONSITE (RECOMMENDED)
Improving Office
11675 Rainwater Dr.
Suite #100
Alpharetta, GA 30009
Overview: If you are wondering, “Is CI/CD possible in Power BI?” , the answer is YES! and this can be achieved with “Deployment Pipelines”. With Deployment Pipelines, it’s now possible to move content smoothly from Development/Test to QA to Production, helping enterprise BI teams bring application lifecycle management to their power BI environments.
· Understand deployment pipelines
· Create a deployment pipeline
· Deploy content with rules
· Comparing Content
· Move content from one stage to next.
Speaker: Akshata Revankar (Data Engineer, Specialist at McKinsey & Company) has 16+ Years of experience in data engineering and data reporting space. Have worked with Oracle database, SQL Server, SSIS, Informatica Power Center, Hadoop systems, Qlik and Power BI. Enjoy being in the data space and learning new things.
Sponsor: TBD
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-04-19 11:05:012023-04-19 13:15:37Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on May 1st (Getting started with Power BI Deployment Pipelines)
Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, April 3rd, at 6:30 PM ET. Your humble correspondent will revisit Power BI important fundamentals in a demo-packed session. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR IN-PERSON MEETING LOCATION HAS CHANGED! WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE AT HTTPS://BIT.LY/ATLANTABIRECS. PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING.
Presentation: Power BI Dashboard in an Hour (DIAH)
Date: April 3rd
Time: 18:30 – 20:30 ET
Place: Onsite and online
Level: Beginner
Food: Food and drinks will be available for this meeting
Agenda:
18:15-18:30 Registration and networking
18:30-19:00 Organizer and sponsor time (events, Power BI latest, sponsor marketing)
Targeting novice Power BI users, this hands-on, no-slide session covers important Power BI fundamentals and best practices. If you’re already a Power BI user, you’ll probably learn a new trick or two. And if you like a challenge, bring your laptop and try to keep up through the steps to create a Power BI dashboard!
Join us and learn how to:
Design your BI model
Acquire and transform data
Turning data into valuable and interactive insights
Sharing your visualizations with others
Speaker: Teo Lachev is a consultant, author, and mentor, with a focus on Microsoft BI. Through his Atlanta-based company Prologika he designs and implements innovative solutions that bring tremendous value to his clients. Teo has authored and co-authored several books, and he has been leading the Atlanta Microsoft Business Intelligence group since he founded it in 2010. Microsoft has recognized Teo’s contributions to the community by awarding him the prestigious Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Data Platform status for 15 years. Microsoft selected Teo as one of only 30 FastTrack Solution Architects for Power BI worldwide.
Sponsor: Improving
Prototypes with Pizza: Power BI Latest with Teo Lachev
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-03-28 13:40:512023-03-28 13:41:45Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on April 3rd (Power BI Dashboard in an Hour)
Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, March 6th, at 6:30 PM ET. Leo Furlong (Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks) will share their point of view on why “the best data warehouse is a lakehouse.” For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR IN-PERSON MEETING LOCATION HAS CHANGED! WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE AT HTTPS://BIT.LY/ATLANTABIRECS. PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING.
Presentation: The Semantic Lakehouse: Power BI and Databricks
Date: March 6th
Time: 18:30 – 20:30 ET
Place: Onsite and online
Level: Intermediate
Food: Food and drinks will be available for this meeting
Agenda:
18:15-18:30 Registration and networking
18:30-19:00 Organizer and sponsor time (events, Power BI latest, sponsor marketing)
Overview: The team from Databricks will come and share their point of view on why “the best data warehouse is a lakehouse.” We’ll go over lakehouse 101, when you might (or might not!) need a lakehouse, some best practices for operating a BI solution with Databricks, and walk through a demo highlighting how PowerBI’s and Databricks’ SQL capabilities complement each other.
Speaker: Leo Furlong, Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks Leo is a seasoned data and analytics professional with 15 years of consulting experience building Data Warehousing and BI solutions using SQL Server, Power BI, and Azure technologies prior to joining Databricks in 2021. As an Atlanta native, Leo is a Georgia Tech and Georgia State grad and lives in the Smyrna/Vinings area with his 4 kids and 4 dogs.
Sponsor: Databricks
Prototypes with Pizza: Power BI Latest with Teo Lachev
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-03-03 15:37:022023-03-03 15:37:02Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on March 6th (The Semantic Lakehouse: Power BI and Databricks)
I’m presenting at SQL Saturday Atlanta 2023 – BI & Data Analytics Edition on February 25th at 9 AM (the very first slot in the very first room for very first early birds). I’ll do a Power BI Dashboard in an Hour this time to revisit the basics. I hope to see some of you there.
Targeting novice Power BI users, this hands-on, no-slide session covers important Power BI fundamentals and best practices. If you’re already a Power BI user, you’ll probably learn a new trick or two. And if you like a challenge, bring your laptop and try to keep up through the steps to create a Power BI dashboard! Join us and learn how to:
• Design your BI model
• Acquire and transform data
• Turning data into valuable and interactive insights
Microsoft announced a public preview of Power BI Dataset scale-out (DSO) for Power Premium, Premium per User (PPU), and Power BI Embedded. In the comments below the announcement, the article implies that this feature is a replacement for the Azure Analysis Services scale-out. “If you have an AAS scale out and you migrate your databases (aka models aka datasets aka cubes) to Power BI Premium, you get scale out automatically and at no extra cost.” Scaling out for free? Sure, where do I sign?
But then further down the comments, we have this clarification “[Power BI DSO happens] if a dataset is on peak load and the vcores of your capacity aren’t maxed out. Keep in mind that scalability on a single instance isn’t linear. By scaling out, we can achieve a better utilization of available CPU resources for high workloads. On the other hand, if your vcores are already maxed out, then scaling out brings no further perf benefit.” Confused? So was I, and I reached for clarification to Microsoft. Below, is my best understanding of what happens behind the scenes.
First, let’s start with a definition. By scaling out, we mean distributing the load to more machines (presumably when scaling up has saturated one server). AAS scale-out is a true scale-out because you provision additional VMs (replicas) and the system distributes queries across the available replica to achieve a linear load (to the point of saturation of course). The big downside is that you pay for each replica and that cost can surely a dent in your budget (a customer recently incurred 30K for one month with the maximum 7 replicas).
Power BI DSO gets trickier. First, Power BI monitors your overall CPU usage to make sure that you don’t abuse the system and exceed the provisioned number of cores. For example, P1 limits you to 4 background cores. If your capacity is consistently saturated, DSO doesn’t bring any benefits. Power BI will throttle all replicas if it sees sustained saturation. You paid for 4 cores and you get 4 cores overall, irrespective that you now have other read replica(s).
But then, suppose the system is in a relatively quiet state. Suddenly, at 8 AM in the morning, a burst of queries comes along from sales reps checking the latest commissions. Now, Power BI will distribute these queries across the replicas to answer them as quickly as possible without throttling. But there is also some smoothing that happens as your queries execute in Gen2. If you get 100 queries at the same time, then they can all execute together with no throttling and on different replicas. After they finish, their CPU cost may cause latency for the next set of queries – but if there’s enough of a gap between this burst of queries and the next burst of queries, then the impact will be minimal and you would just see far better experiences for the end users.
Additional performance boost can be realized by enabling Power BI core auto-scale. As your CPU usage grows beyond the provisioned cores, Power BI will provision more cores. And now you will benefit from a second replica, because a new VM is available with its own set of physical cores. By contrast, without QSO the extra cores wouldn’t really help performance of that dataset because the first replica is running on a VM with all provisioned cores.
For now, DSO targes refresh isolation (one write + one read replica) and this enables scenarios where you want to do a full refresh on a large dataset that wouldn’t otherwise fit in memory. But in future, Power BI promises DSO to scale out to more read replicas. However, I see no reason against using this feature for large datasets, such as organizational semantic models, even in its current state (free, remember?).
Finally, unlike AAS, replica synchronization is automatic if you schedule the dataset refresh in Power BI. If you go through the back door, such as to process a dataset via the XMLA endpoint, you’re on your own synchronizing the replicas.
The following table summarizes the DSO features for AAS and Power BI.
Azure Analysis Services
Power BI
Core throttling
No
Yes, with sustained loads
Primary scenario
Better query performance
Currently, refresh isolation
Synchronization
Explicit synchronization required
Automatic (Power BI dataset refresh) or explicit when XMLA endpoint is used
Cost
Pay per replica
No additional cost
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2023-02-15 15:19:052023-02-15 15:43:16Demystifying Power BI Dataset Scale-out
The Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group is resuming in-person meetings! Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, January 9th, at 6:30 PM ET. Elayne Jones (Data Engineer at 3Cloud) will show you how to integrate Synapse with Power BI. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
WE ARE RESUMING IN-PERSON MEETINGS AT THE MICROSOFT OFFICE IN ALPHARETTA. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE. PLEASE NOTE THAT GUESTS ENTERING MICROSOFT BUILDINGS IN THE U.S. MUST PROVIDE PROOF OF VACCINATION OR SELF-ATTEST WITH HEALTHCHECK (HTTPS://AKA.MS/HEALTHCHECK). ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE AT HTTPS://BIT.LY/ATLANTABIRECS. PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING.
Presentation: Integrating Azure Synapse Analytics and Power BI
Overview: Combining the forces of Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Power BI allows you to weave together the full lifecycle of data ingestion, transformation, and visualization. Synapse encompasses the traditional processes of data warehousing, cleansing, and visualizing all within Synapse Studio, fostering unity among teams and driving efficiency across organizations.
Speaker: Elayne Jones is a Data Engineer at 3Cloud. She specializes in data visualization and data modeling using Power BI. She has expertise developing Power Apps and creating Power Platform solutions that drive efficiency within organizations. Elayne is also experienced querying data using the DAX and SQL languages. Elayne has delivered numerous BI trainings and written blog posts on various BI and reporting topics.
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2022-12-26 16:46:172022-12-26 16:46:17Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on January 9th (Integrating Azure Synapse Analytics and Power BI)
The Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group is resuming in-person meetings! Please join us for the next meeting on Monday, December 5th, at 6:30 PM ET. Your humble correspondent will show you how to implement a custom solution for automating planning, budgeting, and forecasting based on a real-life project. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
WE ARE RESUMING IN-PERSON MEETINGS STARTING DECEMBER 5, 2022, AT THE MICROSOFT OFFICE IN ALPHARETTA. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THE EVENT IN PERSON FOR BEST EXPERIENCE. PLEASE NOTE THAT GUESTS ENTERING MICROSOFT BUILDINGS IN THE U.S. MUST PROVIDE PROOF OF VACCINATION OR SELF-ATTEST WITH HEALTHCHECK (HTTPS://AKA.MS/HEALTHCHECK). ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN JOIN OUR MEETINGS ONLINE VIA MS TEAMS. WHEN POSSIBLE, WE WILL RECORD THE MEETINGS AND MAKE RECORDINGS AVAILABLE AT HTTPS://BIT.LY/ATLANTABIRECS. PLEASE RSVP ONLY IF COMING TO OUR IN-PERSON MEETING.
Presentation: Automate and Improve Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
Overview: Business Performance Management (BPM) is a methodology to help the company predict its performance. An integral part of a BPM strategy is a process for Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting which is typically performed by the Finance department. When it comes to Finance, nothing is simple, and budgeting is no exception. The temptation is to buy expensive prepackaged software but even that route would require a lot of customization and compromises.
Join this session to learn how to implement your own home-grown solution using Microsoft Analysis Services and Excel. I’ll share lessons learned from a real-life project.
Speaker: Teo Lachev is a consultant, author, and mentor, with a focus on Microsoft BI. Through his Atlanta-based company Prologika he designs and implements innovative solutions that bring tremendous value to his clients. Teo has authored and co-authored several books, and he has been leading the Atlanta Microsoft Business Intelligence group since he founded it in 2010. Microsoft has recognized Teo’s contributions to the community by awarding him the prestigious Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Data Platform status for 15 years. Microsoft has selected Teo as one of only 30 FastTrack Solution Architects for Power BI worldwide.
Sponsor: Prologika (a Microsoft Gold Partner in Data Analytics and Data Platform and Power BI Red Carpet Partner) helps organizations of all sizes to make sense of data. Your BI project will be your best investment, we guarantee it! prologika.com
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2022-11-29 11:59:572022-12-02 15:29:16Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on December 5th (Automate and Improve Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting)
Please join us online for the next Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group meeting on Monday, November 7th, at 6:30 PM ET. Sandeep Pawar will join us again to show us the Power BI data science features and how you can create ML models. For more details and sign up, visit our group page.
The use of Data Science tools and techniques has grown in the last few years and BI developers are collaborating closely with the Data Scientists. In this session, we will learn about some of the core concepts in data science, key terminologies and the overall process so that you as a BI developer can effectively collaborate with your Data Science team. You will learn about analogous features in Power BI, their pitfalls, the overall Machine Learning process and the questions you should be asking the next time you are consuming the ML model in Power BI.
This session won’t teach you how to create Machine Learning models, rather it will show you how you should consume the Machine Learning models as a BI developer to help your business users.
Speaker:
Sandeep Pawar is a Sr. Power BI Architect at Hitachi Solutions America. He has extensive experience in creating data analytics and data science solutions. You can read more about him and his passion for data at www.pawarbi.com or follow him on twitter at @PawarBI.
Prototypes without Pizza
Power BI Latest
https://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.png00Prologika - Teo Lachevhttps://prologika.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/logo.pngPrologika - Teo Lachev2022-11-02 08:30:472022-11-02 08:32:31Atlanta MS BI and Power BI Group Meeting on November 7th (Data Science for Power BI Developers)
