Mastering DP-500 Exam: Using the Data Map in Microsoft Purview by Andy
May 3, 2022 Part of the upcoming Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate exam, the DP-500, is to understand how to identify data sources…
Mastering DP-500 Exam: Integrating Microsoft Purview with Power BI by Andy
April 29, 2022 Part of the upcoming Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate exam, the DP-500, is to understand how Microsoft Purview integrates with…
Mastering DP-500 Exam: Querying Partitioned Sources in Azure Storage by Andy
April 21, 2022 This blog forms part of the Mastering DP-500 exam series. A list of available blogs is here and is in…
Mastering DP-500 Exam: Using Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools to query Azure Storage by Andy
April 19, 2022 This blog forms part of the Mastering DP-500 exam series. A list of available blogs is here and is in…
Mastering DP-500 Exam: Blog Resources by Andy
April 18, 2022 I am collaborating with Data Mozart on blogging around the upcoming Microsoft Certified: Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certification. Please…
New Certification: Microsoft Certified Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate by Andy
April 9, 2022 Microsoft has created a new certification, the Microsoft Certified Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate (link here). There is a single…
How does Serverless SQL Pools deal with different file schemas? Part 1 – CSV by Andy
March 24, 2022 Serverless SQL Pools offers a straight-forward method of querying data including CSV, JSON, and Parquet format stored in Azure Storage.…
Integrating Power BI & Azure Synapse Analytics – Power BI UK User Group by Andy
March 17, 2022 Here is the link to the slides for the Power BI UK User Group session on Thursday 17th March, 2022…
SQLBits 2022 – The Dream Team: Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools and Pipelines by Andy
March 14, 2022 I presented a 20 minute session at SQLBits 2022 in which I talked about how useful Synapse Pipelines can be…
Trigger The Process – Using CETAS in Serverless SQL Pools to Generate Pre-Calculated Datasets – Part 2 of 2 by Andy
February 10, 2022 In part one we looked at a process in which a pre-aggregated dataset can be created by Azure Synapse Analytics…
Using CETAS in Serverless SQL Pools to Generate Pre-Calculated Datasets – Part 1 of 2 by Andy
January 27, 2022 Dedicated SQL Pools have a feature called Materialized Views which can generate a pre-calculated/processed dataset ready for consumption and is…
DataMinutes #2 Session Companion for Turbocharging Power BI using Synapse Analytics by Andy
January 21, 2022 The slides for the DataMinutes #2 session Turbocharging Power BI using Synapse Analytics is available here to download. GitHub Code…
SQLBits Session – The Dream Team: Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools and Pipelines by Andy
January 13, 2022 SQLBits is back this year and is running from Tuesday 8th to Sunday 12th March at the ExCel in London.…
DataMinutes #2 Conference – Azure Synapse Analytics Sessions by Andy
January 5, 2022 The next DataMinutes conference (#2) is taking place on Friday 21st January. What’s different about DataMinutes is that it is…
Power BI Hybrid Tables with Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools by Andy
December 23, 2021 In this video we’re talking a look at the new Power BI Hybrid Tables feature which combines Import, Incremental Refresh,…
View Generation in Serverless SQL Pools by Andy
December 16, 2021 One of the objects that can be created within a Serverless SQL Pools database is a View. A View, along…
Testing Error Handling in Serverless SQL Pools by Andy
December 9, 2021 A recent feature to be released for Serverless SQL Pools is error handling when processing external data (please see the…
Data Toboggan Azure Synapse Analytics Event – Call For Speakers by Andy
December 2, 2021 Data Toboggan is a community-driven conference focused on Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft’s flagship data warehousing, big data, and analytics service.…
PASS Data Community Summit Companion Resources by Andy
November 12, 2021 PASS Data Community Summit 2021 Slides Please click here for a PDF copy of the slides. Polaris (Serverless SQL Pools…
Creating a Lake Database using the Database Designer by Andy
November 3, 2021 Synapse Analytics allows the creation of External Tables and Views within a Serverless SQL Pools database and also a Spark…
Azure Synapse Analytics in the Azure Architecture Centre by Andy
October 22, 2021 Microsoft provide an Azure Architecture Centre which contains resources to understand which Azure services are appropriate in certain scenarios and…
Using Access Control Lists To Manage Fine-Grain Data Lake Permissions by Andy
October 11, 2021 When data is stored in Azure Data Lake Gen2, we can use Azure Active Directory and Access Control Lists (ACLs)…
Integrating Azure Purview with Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools by Andy
September 16, 2021 Azure Purview is a Microsoft Data Governance service which enables an organisation to map their data infrastructure including data lineage…
Using Temporary Tables within Serverless SQL Pools by Andy
August 29, 2021 Temporary (temp) tables have been a feature of Microsoft SQL Server (and other database systems) for many years. Temp tables…
External Tables vs Views…Which to Use and Why? by Andy
July 22, 2021 Serverless SQL Pools do not contain data (unlike Dedicated SQL Pools) but rather allow you to cast structure over data…
Azure Storage Folder Filtering using the Filepath Function by Andy
July 7, 2021 Serverless SQL Pools includes 2 SQL functions, filepath and filename, that can be used to return the folder path/name and…
10 Billion Rows: Parquet File Size and Distribution When using CETAS by Andy
July 5, 2021 When using Serverless SQL Pools to write data to Azure Storage/Data Lake Gen2 using the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT…
Creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Synapse Serverless SQL: Part 4 of 4 – Connecting Power BI to the Dimensional Model by Andy
July 1, 2021 Welcome to Part 4 in the Creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Synapse Serverless SQL Pools series. We are now…
Creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Synapse Serverless SQL: Part 3 of 4 – Incremental Fact Loading and Slowly Changing Dimensions by Andy
June 26, 2021 Welcome to part 3 of the Logical Data Warehouse with Serverless SQL Pools series. In this part we’ll be covering…
Creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Synapse Serverless SQL: Part 2 of 4 – Creating a Dimensional Model by Andy
May 31, 2021 Welcome to part 2 of this 4 part blog series on creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Azure Synapse Analytics…
Creating a Logical Data Warehouse with Synapse Serverless SQL: Part 1 of 4 – Setting Up and Querying Source Data by Andy
May 1, 2021 Welcome to part one of a four part blog series where we’ll be looking at one of the main scenarios…
Azure Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools Learning Resources by Andy
April 1, 2021 Welcome to this collection of links to resources focussed on Azure Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Pools. It includes official Microsoft…
Azure Synapse Analytics Serverless SQL Best Practices by Andy
March 1, 2021 Microsoft have a best practices document available here which highlights certain actions that can be taken to optimise use of…
Getting Started with Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Serverless by Andy
February 1, 2021 The new Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Serverless service enables querying file-based data stored in an Azure Data Lake Gen2 storage…
Harnessing Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Serverless in Power BI Dataflows by Andy
January 1, 2021 Power BI Dataflows are a Power BI Service component that allow the creation of centralised, cleansed, transformed and certified tabular…