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In today’s data-driven world, businesses are constantly seeking ways to gain a competitive edge and make informed decisions. This quest for actionable insights has given rise to powerful data visualization tools like Power BI.

Power BI is a business intelligence and data visualization tool developed by Microsoft. It empowers organizations to transform their raw data into meaningful insights through intuitive and interactive reports, dashboards, and data exploration.

The Microsoft Power Platform release plan for 2023 release wave 2 announces the latest updates to customers as features prepare for release. This article covers the new features and updates arriving in Power BI this November.

Balance user queries with query scale-out

Support high user-concurrency workloads for large-scale deployments of semantic models (datasets) in Power BI Premium. Management of query scale-out in Power BI Premium is largely automated for customers.

Query scale-out in Power BI Premium enables user queries to be load-balanced across multiple dataset read replicas in a pool of Power BI Premium nodes. This speeds up query response times for high user-concurrency workloads.
Additionally, dataset refresh operations enjoy increased isolation from the read replicas to protect user queries and improve performance.
Management of query scale-out in Power BI Premium is highly automated compared to other platforms such as Azure Analysis Services. Adding and removing read replicas is performed dynamically based on usage.

Create and run DAX queries with Query view in Power BI Desktop

Professional BI developers can natively write and run DAX queries within Power BI. In the past, they had to rely on third-party tools or APIs. Now, they can use Power BI’s built-in capabilities, making DAX queries development easier and more efficient. These features provide a seamless and productive DAX queries experience.

The DAX query view allows BI developers to create and run DAX queries in Power BI. Using the existing DAX query syntax to quickly query their data model.

DAX expressions are used to define any measure, calculated column, calculated table, dynamic format string, calculation item, and row level security on a user’s model. But that is not all one can do with DAX. With the DAX EVALUATE keyword, users can also use DAX to create a DAX query. This is much like a SQL query where a user can specify columns and aggregations to return in a result table.

Use DAX queries to increase productivity.

This powerful way to interact with your data model will be available in the new DAX query view. Giving users several ways to be as productive as possible with these DAX queries:

Quick queries are accessible in the context menu of Data pane tables, columns, or measures. They provide a head start in creating DAX queries for data preview and summary statistics. With DirectQuery, users can now view sample data without returning to Power Query.
Right-click in the Data pane to get the DAX expression of all measures or a specific measure in a DEFINE statement. Use an EVALUATE statement to run it as a DAX query and add any additional columns.
When a user modifies the DEFINE measure in the model definition, an option for saving time allows the user to update the model, overwriting the current model definition with their changes. There’s no need for manual copy-pasting.
When a user utilizes DEFINE to create a measure not already in the model, they have the option to save time by using “add to model” to incorporate this measure. This eliminates the need to create a new measure and manually copy and paste the DAX expression.
If a user’s measure references another measure, they can define the measure and all the references. This means all the measures DAX expressions are visible on one screen. User can now see the full context of how this measure is calculated from the source columns.
Performance Analyzer already lets users copy the visual DAX query. Users no longer need to take that DAX query and use another tool to view and run it. They can simply run the visual DAX query in Power BI.

Explore single visuals with quick create.

Users can now explore their data in a dedicated exploration mode.

In this new dedicated exploration mode, users will explore a single visual and use AI in Power BI to find hidden insights in their data. The new mode will be available in report visual focus mode.

As we explore Power BI’s latest enhancements, it’s clear that Microsoft actively strives to offer businesses cutting-edge tools for data visualization and analysis. These updates promise to make Power BI an indispensable tool for businesses seeking to extract valuable insights from their data. We are excited to take advantage of the new features coming to Power BI this November and unlock the full potential of data-driven decision-making.

For further information on Power BI. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with allonline365 at +27 (21) 205 3650, email us at contact@allonline365.com or visit our website www.allonline365.com    

By continuously listening to users and extending features, Power BI has established itself as a leader amongst analytics and business intelligence solutions. Power BI’s strong capabilities enable users to easily transform unprocessed data into captivating visualizations and interactive reports. Building upon this success, Microsoft has recently announced Fabric, an end-to-end analytics solution with full-service capabilities including data movement, data lakes, data engineering, data integration, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence. All backed by a shared platform providing robust data security, governance, and compliance.

The data lake, OneLake, is the foundation on which all the Fabric services are built. It’s built into the Fabric service and provides a unified location to store all organizational data where the experiences operate.

OneLake prewires all Microsoft Fabric compute experiences. Just like the Office applications are prewired to use the organizational OneDrive. The experiences such as Data Engineering, Data Warehouse, Data Factory, Power BI, and Real-Time Analytics use OneLake as their native store. They don’t need any extra configuration.

To address the complexity of today’s data environments, Microsoft Fabric presents a revolutionary method of data analytics. Fabric empowers businesses to easily get actionable insights and make data-driven decisions by utilizing the power of artificial intelligence.

While Power BI continues to thrive, Microsoft Fabric introduces new capabilities that will enhance and simplify your data analytics journey.

What features does Fabric bring to Power BI?

Copilot for Power BI

With Copilot, Power BI users can streamline the report creation process significantly. Users can quickly explore data, spot important trends, and produce eye-catching visualisations with Copilot’s intelligent suggestions and automated insights. The AI capabilities of Copilot assist users in exploring cutting-edge visualisation strategies and recommend appropriate chart types, layouts, and colour schemes to effectively communicate insights.

Its AI-powered features go beyond just creating reports. Additionally, it can help users automate data analysis tasks. Users are able to carry out intricate calculations, use statistical functions, and spot patterns or outliers in their data by utilising Copilot. Improving their ability to analyse and present data effectively, saving time and resources, by integrating Copilot into their workflow.

Git Integration with Power BI

Power BI users can incorporate version control systems like Git into their development workflows using Microsoft Fabric. helping teams collaborate effectively, and CI/CD pipelines to integrate seamlessly. Users can track changes, manage branches, and roll back to earlier versions by using the version control features, which help to maintain the integrity and stability of their Power BI assets.

Data Modelling on the Web

This is the solution for those who have been wishing for Power BI Desktop for the Mac. Complete semantic models and reports can now be created on the web with the need of a desktop application. This does not imply that Power BI Desktop won’t continue to get updates and enhancements.

Direct Lake mode

Instead of importing data into a Power BI dataset, users can benefit from faster imports with the ease of DirectQuery’s real-time updates by loading data into Fabric Lakehouse tables. In Power BI reports, users can make changes to the data in the Lakehouse and see them live.

Dataflows Gen2

Users can use Power Query in a Dataflow (Gen2) in Fabric to load the data to a Lakehouse. Each time the new dataflows are executed, it allows for both appending and overwriting data. However, other tools at a user’s disposal. Both data pipelines and dataflows can be used to load data into the Lakehouse.

Robust Data Engineering

Different personas can now work together on ingesting and transforming data in a warehouse or lakehouse thanks to the addition of data factory pipelines, Spark jobs, and notebooks to the toolkit. With these additional tools at their disposal, users can use Direct Lake mode to make changes to the data in the lakehouse that will be immediately reflected in the Power BI dataset(s) connected to it. Users can more quickly and easily get their data in the format it needs to be in by combining various tools and letting developers use what they are most familiar with.

SQL Endpoint for the Lakehouse

The Lakehouse’s built-in SQL endpoint is also available for use. Users can use T-SQL to query the delta tables in the Lakehouse. These are essentially the tables in the semantic model, using the SQL endpoint. Since many analysts are more at ease with SQL than DAX, they are free to write exploratory queries against the data in addition to developing Excel pivot tables or other visuals. Making things even simpler for those who aren’t familiar with SQL or DAX, there is a visual query builder.

Data Activator

With Data Activator, Fabric is making it even simpler to combine actions and insights. Data insights highlight what actions need to happen to improve outcomes. Data Activator offers a no-code way to identify trends or create triggers from your data and launch actions. For instance through notifications, alerts, or Power Automate Flows.

Conclusion

In Microsoft’s journey to transform the analytics industry, Microsoft Fabric marks a significant turning point. Enabling organisations to get the most out of their data by standardising and streamlining analytics workflows and providing a lake-centric architecture. Enabling seamless integration with Power BI and Office.

For further information on Power BI. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with allonline365 at +27 (21) 205 3650, email us at contact@allonline365.com or visit our website www.allonline365.com

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New features are coming to Power BI this November.