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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To 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 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 mohammadaliMicrosoft 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 SujataNarayanaDAX 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 CockingtonAuthor: Katie Murray, Senior Program Manager – Power BI continues to evolve with updates that make it easier to explore data, generate insights, and build more polished reports. This month’s release brings improvements across Copilot and AI experiences, reporting and modeling enhancements, new data connectivity flows, and updates to visualizations—helping you move faster from data […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-May-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5182174. The author is murray-kpAuthored by: Sara Lammini Rodriguez – Product Manager II, and Miguel Escobar – Senior Product Manager This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/New-Power-Query-experience-in-Power-BI-Desktop-Preview/ba-p/5181129. The author is miguelRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/New-Power-Query-experience-in-Power-BI-Desktop-Preview/ba-p/5181129. The author is miguelAuthor: Kay Unkroth, Principl Program Manager – Outbound Access Protection (OAP) is a workspace-level network security and governance feature that blocks outbound traffic from a workspace by default and lets you allow only the destinations you explicitly trust. With this preview, you can now extend OAP to semantic models. Power BI reports aren’t part of […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Outbound-Access-Protection-for-semantic-models-Preview/ba-p/5184917. The author is kayuIf you have a lot of Power BI semantic models that are scheduled to refresh at the same time in the Service then you may find that some of them fail with the following error: You’ve exceeded the capacity limit for dataset refreshes. Try again when fewer datasets are being processed. This post first appeared […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/05/17/understanding-the-youve-exceeded-the-capacity-limit-for-dataset-refreshes-error-in-power-bi/. The author is Chris WebbWelcome to the May Power BI update! Power BI continues to evolve with updates that make it easier to explore data, generate insights, and build more polished reports. This month’s release brings improvements across Copilot and AI experiences, reporting and modeling enhancements, new data connectivity flows, and updates to visualizations—helping you move faster from data […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-May-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5180905. The author is murray-kpThis is a very late addition to the series of posts I wrote back in 2024 and which started here on Power BI memory errors. It’s about a very rare error that is hard to deal with and often temporary but since people do run into it from time to time I decided to write […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/05/10/power-bi-semantic-model-memory-errors-part-5-the-maximum-allowable-memory-allocation-error/. The author is Chris WebbAuthor: Kay Unkroth – Principal Program Manager This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Execute-DAX-Queries-REST-API-Preview/ba-p/5177697. The author is kayuRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Execute-DAX-Queries-REST-API-Preview/ba-p/5177697. The author is kayuAuthor: Kay Unkroth – Principal Program Manager This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Semantic-model-settings-pane-Preview/ba-p/5177694. The author is kayuRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Semantic-model-settings-pane-Preview/ba-p/5177694. The author is kayuDid you know that you can configure your Power BI semantic model so that it automatically binds to a data source connection when you publish? To illustrate how to do this, I created an Import mode Power BI semantic model in Power BI Desktop connected to the Products table in the ContosoSales sample database in […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/05/03/connecting-power-bi-semantic-models-to-data-sources-automatically-with-binding-hints/. The author is Chris WebbPower BI’s latest update introduces an enhancement to how users interact with reports with the general availability of modern visual tooltips. All Power BI reports—from Power BI Desktop to Power BI reports in the web, in the mobile app, in Teams, and embedded in any website—now use the updated visual tooltips, making report interactions easier […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Modern-Visual-Tooltips-in-Power-BI-Generally-Available/ba-p/5173946. The author is jacindaengGetting your data job done just got easier with composite semantic models, mixing Direct Lake tables with import tables, now available in public preview. Direct Lake on OneLake table storage mode already could mix tables from other Fabric data sources, such as lakehouses, warehouses, SQL databases in Fabric, and mirrored databases. And with this update, […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-composite-semantic-models-with-Direct-Lake-and/ba-p/5173943. The author is DataZoe