Strategic Decision on the BI tools

1. Microsoft get a life on SQL and POWER BI
After a few years of silence, wondering if cloud first meant cloud only, SQL Server BI on-
premises customers finally got a peek at the investments being made in SQL Server 2016. In a
series of sessions that can be watched on Channel 9 from //build and Ignite, Microsoft executives
and product managers emphasized a significant commitment to the on-premises SQL Server
offerings including many enhancements to the relational database, new in-database R analytics,
Master Data Services, Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services. That
refreshing and warmly welcomed message eased minds of SQL Server BI professionals around
the world.
Back on April 14, 2015, Microsoft announced a surprise gift to the same on-premises SQL
Server BI audience. Customers with SQL Server Enterprise Edition 2008 or later and Software
Assurance are now freely entitled to Datazen Server for mobile BI at no additional cost. The
complimentary native iOS, Android, and Windows mobile BI client apps for both tablets and
smart phones are already available in device app stores. Datazen also supports simple guest
access for public web delivery of gorgeous dashboards opening up a whole world of exciting
possibilities for Microsoft BI pros.
Times have Changed
In case you missed the memo last summer, times have changed in the Microsoft BI world! We
are literally seeing life breathed back into both cloud and on-premises Microsoft BI in 2015. I
haven’t seen this much buzz and interest since the SQL Server 2012 release. If you’d like to
watch the Microsoft BI Overview session or download the latest presentation, it is posted
to Channel 9. The following is a brief summary of SQL Server 2016 on-premises specific BI
announcements. I will cover May Power BI news in another article since there is so much being
released on a weekly basis these days.

2. SQL Server 2016 BI Related Announcements
 Updateable nonclustered columnstore index support for deploying an operational analytical
model with columnar index in-memory or on-disk row store.
 Parsing and storing of native JSON as relational data and exporting relational data to JSON.
 R is being cooked into the relational database to empower predictive analytic capabilities via
simple T-SQL queries for smart reporting. R models can also optionally be deployed as a
web service to the Azure Marketplace.
 PolyBase is now available without requiring Analytics Platform System (formerly PDW
appliance) for distributed querying of both relational SQL Server data and Hadoop data
through a single T-SQL statement.
 Improved security with encryption for both data at rest and data in motion. Row level
security for fine-grained access control to table rows based on users rights and dynamic data
masking for real-time data obfuscation.
 Neglected classic Reporting Services (SSRS) is finally getting love. In this release, we will
see more chart types and support for mobile on all major modern browsers, including the
latest versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Reporting Services report

3. styles have also been given a facelift with improved report parameters that also support
autocomplete, search and hierarchical display as a tree, enhanced new report templates and
themes that are similar to those in Power BI. You can also customize report themes and
branding using popular CSS. Power Query has been added as a data source. Last but not
least, Reporting Services can finally be published to PowerBI.commeaning on-premises data
can be easily viewed on-prem or in the cloud.
 Analysis Services Multidimensional Mode (SSAS) is also getting a bit of investment. That
alone is fantastic news, right? In 2016, we will see Netezza and Power View being supported
as data sources, performance improvements and DBCC support.
 Analysis Services Tabular Mode (SSAS) is getting a massive upgrade to be more enterprise
ready. Improvements include adding Power Query as a data source, parallel partition
processing, advanced modeling with bi-directional (many-to-many) cross filtering (already
seen in Power BI Designer today), calculated tables, date tables, and translations, new DAX
functions (DATEDIFF, GEOMEAN, PRECENTILE, PRODUCT, XIRR, XNPV, etc.) and
improved in-memory performance (query and metadata operations), multi-threaded formula
engine and scalability improvements that enable the data model size to exceed physical
hardware memory size (hot data in-memory with cold data being stored on disk).
 SQL Server Development Tools (SSDT) and SQL Server BI Tools (BIDS) will be unified in
Visual Studio. The setup experience has been streamlined along with the process for
importing from the designer and from Office vNext. There is also support now for the
Analysis Services Tabular scripting language and extended event-based monitoring in SQL
Server Management Studio (SSMS).
 Master Data Services (MDS) has improved the web application for increased performance
when working with large models, added optional row-level compression per entity, improved
the manageability user interface, and introduced new configurable retention settings. In 2016
there is deeper granular security permissions around read, write, delete, and create actions.

4. There is also support for multiple system administrators and an explicit model administrator
permission property. The Master Data Services Add-in for Excel is now 15X faster than the
current version and was updated to support bulk entity-based staging operations.
 Integration Services (SSIS) designer supports previous versions, Power Query and high
availabilty with AlwaysOn. Azure Data Factory (ADF) can now orchestrate on-premises
Integration Services package execution. There is a new Azure Data Factory data flow task,
Azure Storage Connector, Azure commandlets, and connectors for OData Version 4, Hadoop
File System (HDFS), JSON, and Oracle/Teradata connector V4 by Attunity. To wrap up,
2016 brings more usability upgrades, incremental deployment options, custom logging
levels, and package templates for ETL code reuse.