Paul Turley's SQL Server BI Blog

Report navigation is, in my opinion, the essence of true data exploration and discovery. It lets business users see and understand important information in different forms; in summary and in detail, within context. SSRS and Power BI are truly a dynamic duo for reporting and data discovery. I wanted to post a follow up to these two articles because they are apparently very popular topics. Posted two days apart on my blog, they received 2,744 and 3,356 views. Woo!

— report recipealso see: Drillthrough from Power BI to an SSRS Paginated Report In the recipe titled “Drillthrough from Power…

How can you find the cause of slow performance issues in Power BI? This post demonstrates some of the advanced…

It’s very rare to have the opportunity to learn DAX from the world’s leading expert but we will have that…

Let’s step through a few very simple things that every Power BI new user needs to know. Power BI is…

Our little “Data Geeks” Meetup group in Vancouver, Washington is growing with a line-up of heavy-hitters and bigger crowds. This…

Short (2-4 minute) video posts to help you learn about the Microsoft Azure analytics and data platform. In November of…

Last night I was scheduled to present this topic at the Power BI User Group in Portland except the meeting…

I’ve been remiss about blogging for a little while and have some great stuff to share, starting with this interview with Allen White at the PASS Summit conference in November. Allen is a 15-year PASS veteran and one of the most consistent SQL Server experts in the industry. He’s a powerhouse of knowledge, experience and wisdom. He’s a long-time SQL Server and Microsoft Data Platform MVP and owner of DataPerf Professionals Consulting, mentor, coach, trainer, co-founder and leader of the Ohio North SQL Server user group. He’s served on the PASS Board of Directors as the Program Director.

I had a chance to catch up with two of the three Matts from the Power BI product team at…

At the heart of every a Business Intelligence reporting solution is a data model, to optimize queries and enable ad hoc report interactions. Data modeling technology has evolved quite a lot over the past 20 years or so. You have several choices and options depending on the simplicity or formality of your project, and factors like data size and security. In the past, choices were simpler. Power BI was the choice for smallish, “good enough” projects and when data quality, high volume and exactness were the priority, SSAS was the better choice. Now, using Power BI for modelling larger data sets is even advantageous with new features like hybrid models, aggregations and incremental data refresh.
I’ve been a quest to find the best medium to break these choices down into simple terms but it truly is a journey and not a destination.