Azure Data and Power BI News (May 2022)

Did I say that April was crazy for me? Then I can only write it once more about May, but this time in terms of news and updates from Microsoft data world! Tons of goodies both in Azure Data and in Power BI this month! Of course, most of the exiting news came at Microsoft Build 2022. Let me try to go through the most important news (in my opinion) one by one.

Azure

• Let's start with a big announcement from Build - Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform. I've heard a lot of people being confused about this one. Definitely, it's not about a new product. Actually, I like the way Microsoft MVPs explain it: Simon Whiteley in his video and Paul Andrew in his blog post. Instead of talking about individual well-known products and services covering various aspects of working with data (e.g. SQL Server, Azure SQL, Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics), Microsoft covers them with one umbrella - a unified platform for databases, analytics, and data governance, with common development strategy and integrated experience.

• May was full of great updates in Azure Synapse Analytics. Our monthly summary can be found as always under https://aka.ms/SynapseMonthlyUpdate. My favorite updates this month are: Public Preview of Synapse Link for SQL (low- and no-code, near-real time data replication from Azure SQL or SQL Server 2022 into Azure Synapse!), no need to define the schema when querying CSV files using serverless SQL pool to improve performance (forget about specifying how long your strings are!), the new Spark configuration management with auto-suggestions and built-in rule validation (so much easier for me as a not very heavy Spark user!), and Public Preview of user-defined functions for Mapping Data Flows.
• For Azure Synapse Analytics there is one update deserving a separate bullet this month! We launched the Azure Synapse Influencer Program. We encourage all Azure Synapse users, enthusiasts, and advocates of all levels to join the program. Doesn't matter if you're an expert or you're new to the cloud analytics - everyone is invited! The start is very easy: simply complete the sign-up form, select your membership level, follow @Azure_Synapse on Twitter, and start (or continue) engaging. Share Azure Synapse-related posts and content using the hashtag #SynapseInfluencers!
• Great news from the Azure Data Factory team as well! Besides the user-defined functions for Mapping Data Flows they announced the upcoming preview (June 30) of SAP CDC (Change Data Capture)! You can watch the free launch webinar to find out more. Also, do not miss two new templates for performing complex transformations with Cognitive Services in ADF: PII detection and masking and extracting data from PDF source.
• Two cool updates for Microsoft Purview were announced at Microsoft Build. Microsoft Purview Data Policy brings user friendly data access policy authoring experience along with self-service data access with automated provisioning and DevOps policy to manage Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022. Microsoft Purview Data Estate Insights provide Chief Data Officers and Data Stewards with holistic views on data catalog's adoption and risks related to it, data asset distribution, and data classification and governance.
• Would you be interested in running, developing and testing Azure SQL Database on your laptop, 100% offline? A local development environment update comes with a containerized, full-fidelity Azure SQL experience that includes Visual Studio Code and Azure Data Studio extensions. Yes, you read me correctly, there is a preview of an emulator of Azure SQL Database to run locally! :-)
• Any Azure Cosmos DB fans here? You got the enhanced elasticity features: serverless container capacity increased from 50GB to 1TB, burst capacity for handling traffic spikes by taking advantage of unused throughput, hierarchical partition keys, and partition merge. Also, Azure Cosmos DB has an improved 30-day free trial experience and support for MongoDB data in the Azure Cosmos DB Linux desktop emulator. And, in case you missed it in April, Synapse Link for Cosmos DB supports existing Azure Cosmos DB containers.
• Let's move to AI and Machine Learning. Azure OpenAI Service, an Azure Cognitive Service, is now available in limited access preview. Approved customers (apply here) can access different models from OpenAI, including the GPT-3 base series (Ada, Babbage, Curie and DaVinci), Codex series and embedding models, with the enterprise capabilities of Azure. Azure Cognitive Service for Language has a couple of now generally available capabilities: custom named entity recognition that allows to identify terms specific to a domain and custom text classification for organization and categorization of text with a customer’s domain-specific labels, such as a support ticket or invoice. If you use Azure Machine Learning, try the new integrated Responsible AI Dashboard and Scorecard to evaluate machine learning models by identifying and diagnosing model errors and take care about model fairness. Also, you will find some new AutoML features in Azure ML: support for natural language processing and image tasks, generation of models’ training codes, and enhancements for product integration and Machine Learning Operations (MLOps).
• Azure Stream Analytics got some nice updates in May: no code stream processing (drag & drop experience!), native autoscaling and improved development experience (new Get Started, input/output editor under right-click and improved Azure SQL Database output configuration experience.
• Great news for students! Now you can pass your Microsoft Fundamentals certification exams for free and take Microsoft Official Practice Tests for exams like AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals), DP-900 (Azure Data Fundamentals), or AI-900 (Azure AI Fundamentals)! Also, on the docs page of this offer you will find links to self-paced online content collections and pre-recorded exam crams.
• The Azure data community was not passive in May too. Here is a list of some community content I read, tried or watched last month: a podcast by Paul Andrew (Microsoft MVP) on minimum viable Data Mesh architecture (also, check the whole series on Data Mesh by Paul including the last part "What isn't a Data Product?"), an article by Piethein Strengholt (Microsoft) on topologies and granularity in Data Mesh architecture, a blog post by Koen Verbeeck (Microsoft MVP) on how to save up to 80% on ADF pricing (contains a great reference to a video of another Microsoft MVP, Cathrine Wilhelmsen, on ADF pricing), a blog post (supported with video) by Wolfgang Strasser (Microsoft MVP) on Dynamic Data Lineage in Microsoft Purview, a GitHub repository of Slava Trofimov (Microsoft) with a neat SQL script for enriching Synapse Link for Dataverse entities with human-readable labels.

Power BI

• Number one hot topic for Power BI in May does not come from monthly update, but from Microsoft Build announcements. Certainly, in recent days, the Power BI community has mainly discussed the Power BI Datamart. What is Power BI Datamart and what are its use cases? The answer can be found in many places: a blog post of Matthew Roche (Microsoft), a podcast of Kasper de Jonge (Microsoft), a video of Guy in a Cube, a series of blog posts and videos of Reza Rad (Microsoft MVP). So what is it? To make the long story short let me quote Reza: "Power BI Datamart is a combined set of Dataflow, Azure SQL Database, Power BI Dataset, and a Web UI to manage and build all of that in one place". And it responds to queries quite fast! How fast? Check some benchmark results provided by Mimoune Djouallah, based on a "small" TPC-H dataset (largest table of 60M rows).
• The May update of Power BI was also very cool! Until the Build conference itself, the community was super excited about the new Field Parameters feature, that provide no-code way to dynamically change measures and dimensions being analyzed withing a report. But there were also other nice updates like: canvas zoom, error bars for combo chart or easier management of Power BI subscriptions.
• May was also full of updates related to Power BI integration with Microsoft 365. We got: action bar for interactive reports in the Power BI tab for Microsoft Teams (allowing the same report actions as in Power BI portal), exportable formatted data tables (export of paginated report to different formats), Power BI integration for PowerPoint (interactive Power BI reports in PowerPoint!).
• If you got used to Power BI Goals, you have to learn the new name: metrics in Power BI :-) The feature is now generally available. Also, this feature will be integrated into Viva Goals to provide teams with the way to track their OKRs (objectives and key results).
• Hey, old Power BI fans, do you remember Sand Dance visual? The Power BI team has just announced some nice updates: support for bookmarks, richer transitions, support for background images, new WebGL rendering engine and selection modes.
• But it's not over! Surprisingly, we got composite models over SQL Server 2022 Analysis Services tabular models! Now you can combine tabular models from both on-premises and cloud deployments. Microsoft ❤️ Hybrid Cloud.
• If you are looking for some Power BI inspirations, check the "UN Sustainable Development Goals analysis with Power BI" video at Power BI YouTube channel (presented by Will Thompson, report designed by Miguel Myers, both Microsoft). Also, you can play on your own with the report presented in this session.
• This month I have two customer stories for you: Swiss Re (flexible reporting for Property & Casualty Reinsurance division using Power BI, Azure Synapse and Azure Databricks) and Conduent (standardizing analytics with Power BI and Azure Synapse).
• And, last but not least, let me share some readings/videos from Power BI community: see Sean Miller creating a dashboard on rat sightings in NYC (remake of Tableau dashboard!), read a blog post by Nikola Ilic on how to use Field Parameters (Microsoft MVP), read a smart security use case for Object Level Security and Field Parameters from Chris Webb (Microsoft), watch Kerry Kolosko (Microsoft MVP) presenting her thoughts on building creative visualizations in Power BI, watch Kasper de Jonge and Paul Andrew discussing Data Mesh on Azure with Power BI.

All the announcements from Microsoft Build 2022 are covered in the Book of News. Traditionally, you can find all the official May announcements for Azure and Power BI on the Azure Updates website and the Power BI blog. In addition, you can follow Azure updates in a more "graphical" form using Azure Charts (Heat Map), and with Power BI you can be up to date thanks to the Power BI Release Plan report.

Wow, that was a lot of writing! I hope you enjoyed this summary. As always, I'm eager to read your comments and hear from you about your Azure Data and Power BI findings from last month!