dataMinds News Round up – March 2022
Azure
have you been missing the good old Script Task you’ve been using in your ETL flows built in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)? Good news! Abhishek Narain introduces the new Script Activity in Azure Data Factory (ADF) & Synapse pipelines that provide the ability to execute single or multiple SQL statements!
Dying to know what’s new in store for Azure Synapse Analytics? This month, Saveen Reddy got you covered with some spanking new SQL and data integration features.
Many companies are seeing the value in collecting data to help them make better business decisions. When building a solution in Azure to collect the data, nearly everyone is using a data lake, dixit James Serra. A majority of those are also using delta lake, which is basically a software layer over a data lake that gives additional features. But what technologies are out there and why should I even bother using a delta lake?
It has been 3 months since Microsoft announced the new release of SQL Server 2022. Microsoft did this at the Ignite conference in November 2021. At the time of this writing, the new release is in private preview. It will be in public preview somewhere in 2022 and eventually in general availability.
Microsoft announced it as the most Azure-enabled release of SQL Server yet. And, with continued enhancements in performance, security, and high availability. Monin talks about some Microsoft SQL Server 2022 new features.
DevOps
More and more organizations are turning to DevOps as a way of working together to improve the efficiency and quality of software delivery, and increase value to the business.
But what exactly is DevOps and what does it mean for you and your organization?
Redgate started a series on DevOps 101 with Grant Fritchey kicking of.
In this 20-minute session, Grant explains what DevOps is, what it can offer for your organization, who should be involved and how you can start implementingDevOps within your organization!
Power BI
Chris Webb‘s – and it seems many other people’s favourite – new feature in the February 2022 Power BI Desktop release is support for more datasources (including SQL Server, Azure SQL DB and Synapse) with dynamic M parameters. Dynamic M parameters are extremely important for anyone planning to use DirectQuery: they give you a lot more control over the SQL that is generated by Power BI and therefore give you a lot more control over query performance.
If you are designing solutions with Power BI, or using Power BI along with other data platform components, to be used in a large organization; how should you get started and what are the best practices to ensure success? Paul Turley began a series of 12 blog posts on this topic back in July of 2020. If you can check all the boxes covered in these 12 topics, you are on your way to a successful Power BI solution. Power BI: “doing it right”!
Import mode and DirectQuery within the same table? Yes, with the latest Hybrid tables features in Power BI, it’s possible to get the best from both worlds! Nikola Ilic got you covered with his ultimate guide for hybrid tables in Power BI.