Whether it’s recent news or just new to you, every two weeks the Data Planet serves up fascinating insights and resources from the data analytics and BI world.
Our snack-size summaries skip straight to the point.
This week’s edition of the Data Planet includes:
- Free Quantities Offer for Azure Synapse Expires July 31
- Power BI as a Superset of Azure Analysis Services
- How COVID-19 Pushed Companies over the Technology Tipping Point and Transformed Business Forever
- Software Spotlight: Get to Know Flask
Free Quantities Offer for Azure Synapse Analytics Expires July 31
If you’ve been itching to try the serverless SQL pool and Apache Spark pool resources in Azure Synapse Analytics, now is the time to pounce.
As a promotion for their newly retooled big data platform, Microsoft is offering some free credits through July 31. This is welcome news, as Synapse can be quite pricey. Find out which subscriptions qualify for the offer and how activate your free quantities.
Tell me how to get free credits before July 31
Power BI as a Superset of Azure Analysis Services
Microsoft is cranking up the power of Power BI. The organization announced it will merge Analysis Services and Power BI into one product.
Power BI, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Columnstore Indexes, and Excel Power Query are all based on the same in-memory column technology, Vertipaq. Yet for years Analysis Services and Power BI have interestingly had a parallel development roadmap.
Microsoft has already ported many features from Analysis Services to Power BI and has announced the new Power BI Premium Gen2.
This article gives you the scoop, complete with a timeline and exploration of capabilities that will be added to Power BI.
Read the announcement
How COVID-19 Pushed Companies over the Technology Tipping Point and Transformed Business Forever
Technology moves fast. It’s people who don’t. While remote work has been possible for decades, even in 2019 the majority of employers objected to working from home. “It won’t work!”
The pandemic forced employers to move to remote work in a matter of weeks. Suddenly the myths fell apart. Productivity improved. Masses of reluctant consumers were forced to embrace digital channels, and adoption happened quickly out of necessity.
This was a tipping point.
In July 2020, McKenzie surveyed executives worldwide to ask about digital technology adoption, digital offerings, and how the pandemic has impacted everything from decision making to investments to future plans.
The results revealed executives are rethinking the way they approach technology. Now it’s an integral part of their business strategy, not just a way to be more efficient.
There are a lot more insights to unpack, and this Oct. 2020 article continues to be worth the read, especially as organizations work to redefine their new normal.
Show me the survey results
Software Spotlight: Get to Know Flask
Flask is a minimalist Python library for creating REST APIs. Flask makes it super easy to setup APIs. This is what a minimal Flask app looks like:
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/')
def hello_world():
return 'Hello, World!'
APIs are replacing databases as the primary means of providing data products. This article offers a comprehensive introduction to RESTful APIs.
I'm intrigued. Take me to the article.
