Regarding my books on Microsoft Business Intelligence

Regarding the books

This app (which also happens to be my first app) brings together details of my Microsoft Business Intelligence related books from 2007 to 2014 based on the numerous articles I wrote to various online forums from 1996 to 2006. The focus of all these books is really Microsoft SQL Servers and Microsoft Visual Studio programming IDE. Also the books were written so that even beginning level readers can profit a great deal so that their learning is accelerated.

The first book on SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005 provides you with a basic knowledge you should have before you move on to more advanced topics. It is a step-by-step, hands-on guide that takes you directly to the Visual Studio IDE where you learn to work with projects rapidly and efficiently. You get the first hand experience of connecting to various data sources and transform them in many ways.

 

The second book Learning SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services is ideal for beginners who want to spin-out reports from a variety of data sources and deploy them to report servers. The book is replete with step-by-step, hands-on exercises where the users can hone their skills.

The third book Microsoft SQL Azure: Enterprise Application Development was written at the time Microsoft seriously entered the Cloud Arena. Microsoft took its flagship SQL Server Technology to the Azure Cloud. The books gives you a comprehensive knowledge of how to work with SQL Azure in the cloud from scratch to finish.

The fourth book Microsoft Visual Studio Lightswitch Business Application Development is a jump start, step-by-step guide to take your data out of data sources and present them to the stake holders be it on desktop; the web or the Cloud. The book does not require prior knowledge of VS Lightswitch or Visual Studio.

The fifth book Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 is a revised edition and a deals with both Native and SharePoint Integrated modes of Report Servers. This covers every aspect of the first edition(second book) with lots of added material to include development in the intervening years.

 

As the author of these Microsoft Business Intelligence related books I have great confidence in their usefulness. I would love to hear from you. Email me at: hodentek@live.com.

Does PowerPivot compress smaller files efficiently?

The Analysis Services engine shipped with SQL Server 2008 R2compresses and processes the data which is loaded by the Analysis Services into the worksheet. All this happens in the background using the Power Pivot [Microsoft.AnalysisServices.Modeler.FieldList.Addin.Integration] menu option. The storage mode of this service called the VertiPaq  does the magic of manipulating columnar data in memory.

Results from a simple test of compression:

I downloaded the Power Pivot sample file in Excel format from the CodePlex site. Review my recent post here for details:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2010/05/deliver-knock-out-punch-with-powerpivot.html

• The file is called ContosoStoreData with columns from A to S with 307 Rows as shown here. The file size is 88KB on disc.

• I copied the data and pasted into an excel spread sheet (not using the PowerPivot)and saved it as ContosoNormal. The file size of was 48KB on disc

• Next I imported ContosoNormal into an Excel Spreadsheet under PowerPivot control and named the new file, ContosoNormalReverted. It had the same number of columns as ContosoNormal and the same number of rows(307). The file size was 52KB on disc.

My computer was an Acer Notebook with the following specifications: Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit OS with 3.00 GB RAM. U2700@1.3 GHZ. Free space of 33 GB available on the 288 GB hard disc.