All posts by Dustin Ryan

Dustin is a Data Platform Solutions Architect on the Education team at Microsoft. You can find Dustin blogging and speaking at events like SQL Saturday, Code Camp, and SQL Rally. Follow Dustin on Twitter @SQLDusty.
Power BI

Another 5 Power BI Tips

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If you’ve been at least paying attention to my blog a little bit, you’ve probably noticed I occasionally blog about Power BI. Part of the reason I blog so often about Power BI is because that’s the topic of a whole bunch of conversations I’m having with my customers. The other reason is that the customer I’m speaking with have lots of questions about Power BI. So consider this one of my efforts at scaling myself.

View and download my latest Power BI architecture diagram here!

If you enjoy this “Power BI tips and tricks” type posts, check out my first five Power BI tips and then my second five Power BI tips. You’ll probably enjoy those if you found this post helpful. So without further ado, I present to you more Power BI tips that I truly hope you’ll find helpful.

Continue reading Another 5 Power BI Tips →

Power BI

Why Can’t I View My Power BI Content Pack?

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I had a call with a customer this morning discussing different ways to publish Power BI content and how to share Power BI datasets, reports, and dashboards. A colleague, Patrick Leblanc (b|t), and I had a discussion about this, as well, and Patrick confirmed that this was a common challenge that his customers have faced. I thought I’d share what Patrick and I learned.

New to Power BI? Check out these Power BI tips.

Continue reading Why Can’t I View My Power BI Content Pack? →

Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer, Power Query

Power BI NFL Fantasy Football 2016 Reports

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If you have followed my blog for the past year or so you may remember when I posted a Power BI workbook I created to analyze the previous season’s NFL player stats to help me with my fantasy football draft. I know, its nerdy, but I like Power BI and I like fantasy football so I thought why not?

Download the latest version of the NFL Fantasy Football reports here!

With the new NFL season upon us, I thought I’d update my fantasy football report with the stats from the Continue reading Power BI NFL Fantasy Football 2016 Reports →

#SQLFamily, Free Training, Power BI, power bi desktop, Power BI Desktop Designer

Introduction to Power BI Desktop – Session Materials Available

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imageFor my second time, I was afforded the great opportunity to present virtually to the great people of the Madison Power BI User Group. I’m always really excited when someone invites me back a second time to speak because that means that the first time wasn’t completely awful! We had a great time last evening discussing Continue reading Introduction to Power BI Desktop – Session Materials Available →

#SQLFamily, Free Training, SQL Server 2016

SQL Server 2016 Rundown – Session Materials Available

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imageYesterday evening I had the distinct pleasure of presenting at the Jacksonville SQL Server Users Group on some of the new features of SQL Server 2016. We had delicious pizza, lots of great networking, and a lot of fun talking about SQL Server. The group had a ton of great questions, too! Thank you to everyone Continue reading SQL Server 2016 Rundown – Session Materials Available →

DAX, Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer

Introduction to Power BI Desktop – Recording Now Available

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Thank you to everyone that attended this past Tuesday’s webinar hosted by Pragmatic Works called Introduction to Power BI Desktop. We had a great turn out! If you missed the webinar, you can view the recording here.

Check out these five Power BI tips!

There were lots of great questions and far too many to answer during the webinar so I thought I’d answer a few of the questions here.

Continue reading Introduction to Power BI Desktop – Recording Now Available →

DAX, Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer

June 2016 Release of Power BI Desktop is Here!

POWER BI DESKTOPLast night at approximately 9:28 PM EST the June 2016 release of Power BI Desktop dropped, which you can download here.  The June update is pretty extensive and includes a bunch of new features and improvements. Here’s some of the biggest new features and some of my favorites.

Check out these 5 Power BI Tips

Continue reading June 2016 Release of Power BI Desktop is Here! →

dataviz, DAX, Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer, Power Query, Uncategorized

5 More Power BI Tips

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I’ve had this blog post in my mind to write for the past month or so and I’m finally just getting around to it while I’m waiting to board my flight back home.

Check out my first 5 Power BI Tips here

These are just five more Power BI tips and tricks that I think everyone should know in order to get the most out of Power BI and produce better, more useful, and more powerful Power BI reports for their users. So without further ado, here are five more Power BI tips in no particular order. Enjoy!

Continue reading 5 More Power BI Tips →

Excel, Power BI, Power BI Desktop Designer, SQL Server 2016, SSRS

Power BI Architecture Diagram v2 is Now Available

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Download the latest version of the Power BI Architecture Diagram here!

I finally finished putting together version 2 of my Power BI architecture diagram. I previously put together an architecture diagram but as fast as Power BI is changing, v1 of the diagram was quickly obsolete. I always wanted to come back and add more to the diagram to make it more complete but now that SQL Server 2016 is generally available and enhancements have been made to Power BI to facilitate integration with Excel and SSRS, it made sense to do another diagram.

The reason I originally created this diagram was to use as a tool during conversations with my customers. But I’ve also used the diagram in other presentations and found it beneficial while teaching about how Power BI works. I wanted to make this resource available to others for their benefit. So here’s v2.

Click here to download a .zip file with the .pdf and .png files.

Power BI architecture v2

I’ve included a few new things to make the diagram up to date with the latest changes to Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Excel.
This document includes components to illustrate:

  • Publishing Power BI desktop files and Excel workbooks to Reporting Services
  • Publishing Excel workbooks to a Power BI site
  • Browsing Power BI data models with Excel
  • Publishing Reporting Services content to the Report Server
  • Browsing Reporting Services mobile reports and KPIs using Power BI apps

Feel free to download this content and use it in your presentations, discussions, and for your own learning. I hope you find it useful and if you do, share it with a friend.

Feedback?

Do you have any feedback on this diagram or anything you’d like to see me change? Leave a comment or let me know! Thanks!

Power BI, SQL Server 2016, SSRS

What’s New in Reporting Services 2016

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Today I had the pleasure of presenting to the Higher Ed Data Warehousing and BI Group. We discussed the long list of new features and enhancements included with SQL Server Reporting Services 2016. The webinar has been recording and I’ve uploaded it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

If you’d like to download my PowerPoint slide deck, you can do that here.

And you can download my portal brand package here.

Continue reading What’s New in Reporting Services 2016 →