Hey guys!!
In another quick post, I would like to share with you some materials to learn about SQL / Azure Analysis Services (SAAS / AAS) without paying anything – FOR FREE! If your excuse was to learn about this semantic and processing layer, which allows you to use datasets with BILLIONS of rows in just a few seconds in Power BI, now it's over!

For those who don't know, Azure Analysis Services (AAS) / SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is a Microsoft solution, whose objective is to promote a semantic layer to abstract measurements, calculated columns, relationships, management, alerts, monitoring, governance, security, object documentation and all the technical part of a data model so that IT cares about it, leaving the dataset intact, validated and performant so that end users can connect to these cubes and consume the data in the format Self-Service, without depending on IT to create reports, and all of this, in an organized, controlled way, allowing you to work with gigantic volumes of data (BILLIONS of lines) and with exceptional performance.

We basically have three versions of the product:

  • SQL Server Analysis Services – Multidimensional: Local installation (On-premises) that is part of the SQL Server licensing, available since version 2005 and aims to solve some very complex problems for tabular cubes, in addition to performing very well with data volumes that exceed the amount of available RAM. It uses the MDX language for query, much more complex than the DAX language for the tabular model. Does not allow creating new measures in Power BI when connected to this type of data source
  • SQL Server Analysis Services – Tabular: Local installation (On-premises) that is part of the SQL Server licensing, available since version 2012 and aims to simplify the creation of cubes. He was responsible for the VertiPaq engine, the basis of Power BI, which applies columnar compression, which can reduce the model size by up to 10x. It prioritizes memory usage, so it is usually faster than the Multidimensional cube, but it does not support such large data volumes. It uses DAX language for query (the same as Power BI) and we can create new measures through Power BI Desktop
  • Azure Analysis Services (Only tabular): 100% Cloud installation as PaaS. It has the same characteristics as SQL Server Analysis Services – Tabular, but is updated more frequently and therefore has more features and improvements

Therefore, here are some materials to learn more about these products without spending anything and without leaving home.

Analysis Services Articles

Power BI and Analysis Services – Lesson 1 – Overview of Performance, Security and Governance

In this long-awaited and requested video by our followers, today we are starting a series of videos about Power BI and Analysis Services – How to deliver Performance, Security and Data Governance, where we will demonstrate how to consume 1.5 BILLION records instantly in Power BI, in addition to much more!

Power BI and Analysis Services – Lesson 2 – On-premises vs Cloud

In the second video of the long-awaited and requested by our followers, training on “Power BI and Analysis Services – How to deliver Performance, Security and Data Governance”, I will demonstrate the differences, advantages and disadvantages between using Analysis Services On-Premises (local) or in the cloud (Cloud / Azure) to help you decide which form of contraction best suits your BI projects.

Power BI and Analysis Services – Class 3 – Tabular vs Multidimensional

In the third video of the long-awaited and requested by our followers, training on “Power BI and Analysis Services – How to deliver Performance, Security and Data Governance”, I will demonstrate the differences, advantages and disadvantages between the Analysis Services Tabular and Multidimensional data models to help you decide which model to use in each scenario of your BI projects.

Tabular or Multidimensional? Which model should I use?

In this session you will learn about the main differences between the Multidimensional and Tabular models in SQL Server Analysis Services. We will also see, according to the main positive and negative points, where to fit each of them into an Enterprise project. We'll also look at where and when to use the SSAS Tabular PaaS model on Azure.

Power BI and Analysis Services – Class 4 – Installation, Configuration, Hiring in Azure and Connection

In this 4th video lesson in the “Power BI and Analysis Services” series, I will demonstrate how to prepare the environment before starting the OLAP cube project

Power BI and Analysis Services – Class 5 – How to create a Tabular cube

In this 5th video lesson in the “Power BI and Analysis Services” series, I will demonstrate how to create your first Tabular cube, showing the creation of measurement tables, documentation, creation of hierarchies, publication of the finished cube and consultation of the cube created in the video.

Happy Hour with Data #9 – From Application to Dashboard

In the ninth live of “Happy Hour with Data”, we presented an end-to-end BI project: Creation of ETL with Azure Data Factory and Azure Logic Apps, data being written to SQL Server and MongoDB, an API using NodeJS will be created to make this data available, Creation of a model in Azure Analysis Services and reading this data using Power BI. This data will still be brought back to SQL Server using SSIS!!

We demonstrate in this live how this project works integrated and thus, we demonstrate an end-to-end BI project, like you have never seen live.

Nerdzao #213 – Power BI and Analysis Services

Power BI and Analysis Services – 1.5 billion rows in 1 second: In this presentation, I demonstrated the full potential of using Power BI by consuming tens of millions of rows from Azure Analysis Services, delivering performance, governance and security to your data analysis

That's it, folks!
A big hug and see you next time!