The Best Articles and Tutorials About Cloud Analytics, BI and Management
Paul Hansen is an experienced Analytics Engineer and Senior BI Developer, skilled in data architecture, ETL processes, and data visualization. He has a strong background in SQL, Python, and cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. Paul has led teams to create integrated data solutions, leveraging tools such as dbt, SSIS, and Power BI. His recent roles have ranged from Senior BI Developer to BI Team Lead, demonstrating his ability to manage complex projects and deliver insightful business intelligence solutions. Paul values a collaborative work environment that fosters innovation and professional growth.
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When you configure a Denodo data connection for Entra ID SSO, users querying a semantic model in DirectQuery mode are authenticated to Denodo with their own Microsoft Entra ID identity. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Microsoft-Entra-ID-single-sign-on-for-the-Denodo-connector-in/ba-p/5193376. The author is kayuRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Microsoft-Entra-ID-single-sign-on-for-the-Denodo-connector-in/ba-p/5193376. The author is kayuHow to use sensitivity labels and Protection Policies to secure your Power BI estate — and why it matters more than ever in the age of AI. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Protect-once-enforce-everywhere-Protection-policies-for-Power-BI/ba-p/5223932. The author is yaelbissRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Protect-once-enforce-everywhere-Protection-policies-for-Power-BI/ba-p/5223932. The author is yaelbiss“Extreme DAX” by Michiel Rozema, Madzy Stikkelorum and Henk Vlootman Continuing my series of not-reviews of the latest Power BI-related books (and there are fewer and fewer of them being published) that I receive free copies of, here’s the second edition of a book that for some reason I missed first time around: “Extreme DAX”. […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/06/21/new-book-extreme-dax-2nd-edition/. The author is Chris WebbWhen enabling Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on (SSo) for Starburst (Preview) report viewers querying semantic models in DirectQuery mode authenticate to Starburst with their own Entra ID identity, to Starburst’s access policies — including row-level and column-level security rules — are evaluated against the actual end user rather than a fixed connection account. This post […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Microsoft-Entra-ID-single-sign-on-for-the-Starburst-connector-in/ba-p/5193371. The author is kayuWorkspace outbound access protection (OAP) is a workspace-level control in Microsoft Fabric that lets you constrain where the data inside a workspace can flow. With this preview, OAP support now extends to Power BI reports. The good news for report authors and admins: there’s nothing new to configure on the report itself. Protection comes from […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Workspace-outbound-access-protection-for-Power-BI-reports/ba-p/5193354. The author is kayuAnnouncing general availability of org apps in Power BI and Fabric, including one of the most requested capabilities: audiences. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Org-apps-with-audiences-for-Power-BI-and-Fabric-Generally/ba-p/5196326. The author is dustinaskinpbiRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Org-apps-with-audiences-for-Power-BI-and-Fabric-Generally/ba-p/5196326. The author is dustinaskinpbiConnecting Power BI to Oracle has historically meant extra provider installations and data gateway deployment — even for cloud-hosted databases. Two new Preview capabilities change that. Power BI Desktop now includes a bundled Oracle Managed ODP.NET provider, and the Power BI service supports direct cloud connections without the need for a data gateway to Oracle […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Simplified-Oracle-connectivity-in-Power-BI-Preview/ba-p/5193366. The author is kayuIf you use connectors like Databricks, Snowflake, or BigQuery in Power BI or Fabric, there’s an important change coming. Microsoft is moving from embedded ODBC drivers to ADBC, which affects how connections are established and managed. This post explains what’s changing, who’s impacted, and the steps you can take now to prepare. This post first […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Migrating-from-embedded-ODBC-drivers-to-ADBC-in-Power-BI-and/ba-p/5195167. The author is MichaelaIsaacsQuite a few new Dataflows Gen2 features were released recently without much fanfare, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. I will take a look at them all in my next few posts; in this first post I’ll look at the ability to disable V-Order on staged data. As the (very detailed) documentation for this […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/06/14/improve-performance-of-staging-in-fabric-dataflows-gen2-by-disabling-v-order/. The author is Chris WebbThis month, we’re continuing to focus on making every day work a little easier—whether that’s building reports, modeling data, or just getting answers faster. You’ll see progress across Copilot and newer AI-driven experiences, along with a set of practical updates to reporting that help reduce repetitive work. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-June-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5193264. The author is murray-kpRead […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-June-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5193264. The author is murray-kpAI powered Power BI reporting skills is a collection of multiple skills that enables AI agents to automate report creation, from designing pages to publishing to Fabric. Now available through the Power BI authoring plugin in Skills for Fabric —a first-party catalog of agent skills for Microsoft Fabric optimized for GitHub Copilot CLI—this capability allows agents to […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/AI-Powered-Power-BI-reporting-From-design-to-deployment-with/ba-p/5190703. The author is SharlkaurTo finish off my series of posts on concurrent evaluation in Fabric Dataflows Gen2 (see part 1 and part 2) I decided to do some more realistic tests to see how much parallelism I could get. To do this I uploaded 244 identical Excel files containing almost 542000 rows of data each to a SharePoint […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/06/07/fabric-dataflows-gen2-and-concurrent-evaluation-part-3-is-more-parallelism-always-good/. The author is Chris WebbCopilot in web modeling (Preview) in the Power BI service, is an AI-powered assistant helping you analyze and improve your semantic models using natural language so you can spend less time on manual edits. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Copilot-in-web-modeling-Preview/ba-p/5182287. The author is jacindaengRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Copilot-in-web-modeling-Preview/ba-p/5182287. The author is jacindaengMicrosoft Build 2026 marks a major shift in how developers build data experiences with AI agents. Today we’re announcing two capabilities that bring agentic analytics to the forefront: Agent Skills for Power BI, which let developers prompt an AI agent to build and refine semantic models and reports, and Fabric Apps for Semantic Models, which […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Building-in-the-Agentic-Era-with-Power-BI-and-Fabric/ba-p/5190754. The author is SujataNarayanaMicrosoft Build 2026 brings the next generation of intelligent analytics to Power BI—where agents do the building, apps deliver insights everywhere, and the platform gets more powerful for every user. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-at-Microsoft-Build-2026-The-Agentic-Era-of-analytics/ba-p/5191671. The author is mohammadaliRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-at-Microsoft-Build-2026-The-Agentic-Era-of-analytics/ba-p/5191671. The author is mohammadaliDAX user-defined functions are now production-ready based on community feedback and internal validation. Their adoption during preview shows that DAX UDFs are quickly becoming a mainstay of Power BI semantic models. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/DAX-User-Defined-Functions-Generally-Available/ba-p/5185738. The author is kayuRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/DAX-User-Defined-Functions-Generally-Available/ba-p/5185738. The author is kayuIn the first part of this series I showed how the Concurrency setting in a Fabric Dataflows Gen2 can affect refresh performance when there are multiple queries inside the dataflow. In this post I will show how, with Partitioned Compute, this setting can also affect the performance of a single query within a dataflow. To […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/05/31/fabric-dataflows-gen2-and-concurrent-evaluation-part-2-partitioned-compute/. The author is Chris WebbDid you know that if your Fabric Dataflows Gen2 contains several queries then you can control how many of them are evaluated in parallel when your dataflow refreshes? In this series I’ll look at how how you can do this and how it may result in better performance – at least in some cases. Let’s […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/05/24/fabric-dataflows-gen2-and-concurrent-evaluation-part-1/. The author is Chris WebbAuthor: Winnie Li, Cloud Solution Architect This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-Tenant-Migration-Trade-offs-risks-and-realities/ba-p/5187013. The author is WinnieLiRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-Tenant-Migration-Trade-offs-risks-and-realities/ba-p/5187013. The author is WinnieLiWhy Star Schema Matters More Than Ever in the Age of AI It was over a decade ago that Matt first posted on The Optimal Shape for Power BI Data. Throughout the years since, Matt consistently promoted this as one of the most important lessons he taught Power BI users […]Read More » This post […]
This post first appeared at https://exceleratorbi.com.au/the-optimal-shape-for-power-bi-data/. The author is Jason Cockington