Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
Summary: Following in the footsteps of a number of other active (and not so active) labs sites, Microsoft's BI (business intelligence) Labs quietly opened its virtual doors in April.
Following in the footsteps of a number of other active (and not so active) labs sites, Microsoft's BI (business intelligence) Labs quietly opened its virtual doors in April.
Like Microsoft's adCenterLabs, Office Labs and DevLabs, the Microsoft BI Labs is intended to be a showcases for fledgling technologies that some day may end up part of commercialized Microsoft products.
Microsoft already has a handful of BI Labs products listed on its new Web site. The various technologies there are all downloadable by anyone who'd like to kick their tires. (Remember, there's also no guarantee as to how long Microsoft will continue to offer any of these projects/technologies, as some Live Labs testers found out the hard way.)
The BI Labs technologies were developed by various teams around the company. The current technologies being showcased include:
A tool for formatting MDX and DAX queries
Fuzzy Look-Up Add-in for Excel
A tool for SQL Server datamining for the cloud
PivotViewer Extension for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
According to an introductory video, Microsoft's BI Labs plan to make available more prototypes and grassroots projects for download. These are not Microsoft-supported products and may or may not ever become parts of shipping Microsoft business-intelligence-focused products.
Business intelligence continues to be a key focal point for Microsoft's SQL Server and Office teams. The "Denali" SQL Server release, expected by some to ship in late 2011 or possibly 2012, is set to include more BI functionality. Microsoft delivered a first test build of Denali in November 2010. At the company's TechEd '11 conference in mid-May 2011, Microsoft is holding several sessions on "Crescent," a web-based, data visualization and presentation solution, and follow-on to the PowerPivot technology that is part of SQL Server 2008 R2
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Talkback
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
I worked for TWO different companies in Seattle that EACH HAD 60,000 REPORTS USING OFFICE WEB COMPONENTS, and WHAT DID MS DO? They just killed it with ZERO roadmap, ZERO planning.
Microsoft had a MUCH better BI stack a decade ago, and they refuse to offer basic functionality like Olap in Microsoft Access.
All it would take would be for Microsoft to offer something that Crystal Reports has offered for the past ~15 years-- a basic Olap tool.
I'd rather use pen and paper than contribute to another spread-mart!
Aaron Kempf
MCITP: DBA SQL 2005
253-882-9024
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
That's not real BI. You can't tell me that the crystal reports plugin can aggregate and crunch a million records. Microsoft BI 2005 and later has made alot of progress.
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
@bmonsterman
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
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RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
please, before talking get your mind updated
Analysis service, excel power pivot, performance point, all integrated and really flexible.
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
@bar.f@...
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
And how do you store and publish Access files and reports to share with others? It would be cool if there was a web-based system that could do that with ALL office files. Oh wait, that's exactly what SharePoint does. And you're right, no one uses excel ...?
Message has been deleted.
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
Apparently none of you know what Business Intelligence is.
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
He and his cat were laughing like mad in his mom's basement.
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
Performance Point, Power Pivot and Analysis services
- Analysis services for warehousing and mining
- Shrepoint performance point services for client interfacing
- Excel services in sharepoint for quick BI dashboards
- Latest Power pivot for excel and sharepoint for offline data crunching
- SQL reporting services for reporting and charting ( charting is limited ) but reports are very powerful
- 3rd Party Dundas charting ( simple and OLAP ) excellent solution for client end web based, silverlight and desktop dashboarding.
SO in short, micrsoft has every thing an enterprise is looking in the BI area, even from ETL and mining point of view. People can debate about ETL and mining solution capabilities but still they has a reasonable offering.
www.biggtech.com
Good News
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site
sharepoint isn't practical for MOST companies, it's just too buggy.. and it doesn't truly work right unless you have ActiveX / Internet Explorer. @facebook@...
I stand by my original assertion- that Microsoft BI was MORE POWERFUL TEN YEARS AGO than it is today
RE: Microsoft launches a new business-intelligence labs site