Microsoft Cloud BI with Windows Azure:What’s Possible?

September 11, 2013

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Andy Tegethoff

Andy is a Microsoft BI architect at Perficient and a senior-level consultant with more than 12 years of experience exploring, planning and building cost-effective software and process-oriented solutions for challenging business problems. A Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) for SQL Server 2008 BI, his solutions integrate elements such as data warehousing, dashboards, and broad-based reporting in order to deliver vital, actionable information at every level of the enterprise.

Our Speaker

• Cloud Computing

• Cloud BI

• Microsoft Cloud BI overview

• Q&A 

Agenda

Cloud Computing

Why move to the Cloud?• Reduced organizational IT costs• Built-in scalability and reliability• High availability• Maximum “futureproofing”

This applies to Business Intelligence solutions, too.• Addresses several key concerns in DW/BI planning/development• Reduces significant hardware costs and associated planning effort• Potentially shortens implementation time

Cloud Computing

Common Cloud Service Models

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)• Platform as a Service (PaaS)• Software as a Service (SaaS)

Cloud BI

Business Intelligence in the Cloud• The principles of Cloud Computing applied to BI solutions• Offers benefits of scalability, stability, reduced cost – drastically

reducing hardware concerns and overhead• Need to be aware of some “gotchas” (i.e. data loading

complications, data size boundaries, associated costs)

Cloud BI

Business Intelligence in the CloudPublic Cloud Delivery Options

PaaS

BI development platforms/packages

IaaS

Hosted virtual DB servers

PaaS

“Build Your Own” platforms

SaaS

“BI as a Service” apps

• Deploy your own solution in the cloud

• Low upfront costs (licensing of VM software, etc.)

• No cloud-based horizontal scaling; must be done in application and DB architecture

• Cloud-based platform services

• Low cost, pay-per-use

• Allows/requires custom development to some extent

• Prepackaged BI solutions• “Easy” management and

implementation• No design flexibility;

custom apps are off the table

Cloud BI

Business Intelligence in the CloudOther Delivery Options

PaaS

BI development platforms/packages

Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud

• Offers the most control, but also greater cost

• Design your own solution, manage your own cloud

• An option if your organization already owns and maintains a private cloud

• Public/Private cloud combination

• Leverage the public cloud for “spikes” in either availability or processing

• More complicated solution to accomplish load balancing

Cloud BI with Windows Azure

Azure Data and Analytics • Advanced toolset; thought leadership in cloud

• Also in the marketplace… – “BYOLicense” Cognos in Amazon EC2 VM– SAP BI OnDemand; file-based reporting with no Data Warehouse

• Azure PaaS offerings are fully (public) cloud-based– Azure SQL Database/Reporting – “SQL Server + SSRS in the Cloud”– HDInsight – Big Data/Hadoop Cloud Service

• IaaS offerings can be cloud-based or “hybrid”– Azure VM-based SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint servers– Source data either in the cloud or on-premises

Azure Platform as a Service

Azure SQL Database• “SQL Server in the cloud“

– Formerly known as SQL Azure– “Database as a Service” – all elements are cloud-based– Limitations around security and certain other functions

• Only uses SQL Authorization; No SSAS, SSIS– Value-adds:

• PaaS benefits (horizontal scalability, hardware cost savings)• Connectivity with on-premise SQL Server

Azure SQL Reporting• “SQL Server Reporting Services in the cloud”

– SSRS-style reporting against Azure SQL Database(s) • Limitations: Only uses SQL Database authorization; SQL Database the

only source

Azure Platform as a Service

HDInsight• Azure’s Big Data option - currently in Preview• Wraps an Apache Hadoop implementation• Uses Azure Tables for storage (NoSql storage option)• Excellent option for integrating Big Data into existing applications, BI

solutions, reporting environments

How does it work?– Get an Azure Storage account and set up an HDInsight cluster (account cost

relates directly to size of cluster)– Upload data using native JavaScript, Hadoop command line, Sqoop connection

from SQL Server/Azure SQL Database, or a raft of 3rd party tools– Connect and analyze data using SQL Server and/or Excel via ODBC, an Integrated

application(s) via Hadoop.NET, or Azure SQL Database/SQL Reporting via Sqoop.

Azure Infrastructure as a Service

SQL Server 2012 BI in the Cloud• Azure VM

– Only path to fully-functional SQL Server BI in the cloud• Only way to run Analysis Services or set up SharePoint integrated

SSRS in Azure– Link to existing AD network, plus enable virtual network– SharePoint

• Full-featured edition needed? Run in VM!• Certain editions of SharePoint and Office 365/SharePoint online offer BI

functionality

• Two Options for implementation– Build VM offline, upload VHD to Azure– Build VM directly in Azure, provision/install/configure VHD in cloud

• Pre-built VMs provided by Microsoft – including a BI server

Cloud Front-End

Office 365 and SharePoint Online• Cloud-based offering of Office applications

including Excel and SharePoint

• Can provide front-end for Microsoft BI

(cloud-based or on-premise*)

• BUT some versions provide BI functionality, some do not!– SharePoint/Excel BI features not available with O365D (private-cloud) edition– The O365 E3/A3/G3 plans and SharePoint Online Plan 2 include BI components– Note that PerformancePoint Services, which is used for dashboards and

scorecards, is not available in any edition

Cloud Front-End

Power BI• Brand new cloud-based self-service BI offering

• Suite of powerful self-service BI apps via a

familiar interface: Excel

• Initial offering for SharePoint Online/Office 365 only– Dedicated mobile/Windows 8 app (to be available across Windows

ecosystem)– Supports Windows 7 and Mac users via browser

• Visualizations rendered using HTML 5– Standard browser compatibility for internet, mobile, tablet, etc.– Mobile Microsoft BI!

Power BI Components

Power Pivot• Tool for creating and customizing flexible

data models within Excel

Power View• Tool for creating interactive charts, graphs and

other visual representations of data

Power BI Components

Power Map• Formerly known as “GeoFlow“

• 3D data visualization tool for mapping, exploring and interacting with geographic and temporal data

Power BI Components

Power Query• Formerly known as "Data Explorer“

• Easily search and access public and organization data within Excel• Perform basic transformations to join data to your PowerPivot model(s)

Power BI Components

Power BI Sites• SharePoint Online sharing of Power BI content

via new site type

• Reports can be set to refresh data on schedule

or on-demand

• Power BI sites can be browsed from mobile device or

desktop/laptop

• Add reports to mobile favorites to view on tablet or smartphone

Summary

With Azure, SQL Server 2012, and Office 365 you can:• Implement PaaS or IaaS solutions in the cloud • Run a full-fledged SQL Server BI Solution via Azure VMs• Host Big Data in the cloud and integrate it into existing on-premise

solutions via HDInsight• Build great BI visualizations in the cloud with a familiar Excel

interface – and even show them for mobile users!

But keep an eye on:• Security concerns• Maintenance needs • Licensing• Integration between on-premises and other Microsoft cloud offerings

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clients throughout North America.

We help clients implement business-driven technology solutions that

integrate business processes, improve worker productivity, increase

customer loyalty and create a more agile enterprise to better respond to

new business opportunities.

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