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Most Popular

Presentations (PPTs)

Over 50 of the popular PPTs (not PDFs) on: Artificial Intelligence, Azure ML, Azure AI (incl Cognitive Services and Bots), Data Science, Power BI, Microsoft R and ML Servers, R in general, and advanced analytics. Includes Microsoft Ignite, Data Science Summit and the Advanced Analytics and Data Science Roadshows, as well as various keynotes and roadshows focused on the future of data and databases from global conferences from this and the past years are available here.

DAX: Calculated Columns vs. Measures

DAX Formula for Classifying Data Using a Calculated Column

Learn the difference between calculated columns and measures in Data Analysis Expression (DAX) in this free, 10-minute video by Marco Russo, a well-known book author on the subject. Calculated columns are calculated row-by-row when the content of a table is refreshed, whereas measures are computed at query time, by aggregating rows. However, they have different uses, including filtering or classifying data, so you often need to make a trade-off between purpose and performance.

MDX Basic Concepts

MDX Basic Concepts: Cubes and Tuples

MDX, or Multidimensional Expressions, has the reputation of being a difficult language, but this reputation is undeserved, even if the concepts it uses are different from those of relational databases. In this free, 29-minute video, part of our series on MDX, world-renowned SQL Server Analysis Services expert Chris Webb of Crossjoin Consulting and Technitrain introduces three basic concepts: the use of unique names to refer to objects, tuples and how they are used to return values from a cube, and sets, which are ordered lists. Understanding these ideas will give you the theoretical foundation you need to write your own MDX calculations, and queries, for SSAS and PowerPivot.

Introduction to Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server

If you ever wanted to learn data mining, and predictive analyticss, start right here! Microsoft SQL Server comes with easy-to-use data mining tools, requiring very little formal knowledge of the subject to get started. This free data mining video tutorial is the first module, in this series, dedicated to explaining how to perform advanced analytics of your own data. In this video we explain: what is data mining, why would you use it, and how it is related to Big Data analytics, and we illustrate it with two short demos, showing Outlier Detection and Market Basket Analysis.

DAX in Action!

DAX Formula for Counting New Customers Using CALCULATE, FILTER, and COUNTROWS

See the power of Data Analysis Expression (DAX) language in BI Semantic Model (BISM) with PowerPivot and SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) in this free, 20-minute video by Alberto Ferrari. In the demo shown in this video we create a simple data model, based on the AdventureWorks sample database. We show you how to write a challenging formula: counting how many new and returning customers make a purchase every month. If you would like to gain DAX skills, this video, first one in our series focusing on DAX, shows you what could be accomplished without even having to change the model of your data.

What Are Decision Trees?

What are Decision Trees?

A decision tree is a tree of nodes. Each node represents an input value that makes the most profound difference to an output that you wish to study. This free 10-minute video by Rafal introduces this powerful analytical tool, and explains the concepts while analysing simple retail data in a demo.

Power View and BISM: A Short Introduction

Power View Scatter Plot (Animated Bubble Chart)

Power View, part of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services, and the BI Semantic Model (BISM) are briefly introduced in this 10-minute video. The demo shows how to create the animated bubble chart (scatter plot) from your data.

DAX: The CALCULATE Function

DAX: CALCULATE Function with ALL and FILTER

CALCULATE is the most important function in Data Analysis Expression (DAX) because it allows you to manipulate filter context, which is necessary for building real-world calculations. Let Marco Russo explain it to you in this 47-minute video tutorial that contains 5 detailed demos. You will learn: when to use CALCULATE, its syntax, how to manipulate filters at column granularity level, and how to transform a row context into a filter context. Learning these concepts will enable you to write advanced calculations in DAX, and it will make following the remaining modules of our DAX video series easier.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence (Article)

SQL Server 2012 Logo

This article, by Rafal, discusses pivotal BI aspects of Microsoft SQL Server 2012: BI Semantic Model (BISM), PowerPivot 2, Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), the future of OLAP Cubes and MDX (Multidimensional Expressions), and, briefly, it touches on the role of the Cloud for analytics.

Querying with DAX

Querying with Data Analysis Expressions using DAX Studio by Marco Russo

Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is useful for querying data, in addition to its more common use for defining measures and calculated columns in PowerPivot or tabular models. Marco Russo explains the tools, including DAX Studio, and the syntax necessary for writing DAX queries in this 46-minute video, containing 7 detailed demos, part of our series on DAX. You will learn about the EVALUATE statement, how to control projection of data by using ADDCOLUMNS and SUMMARIZE functions, how to use the ROW function to test new measures for your data model, and how to use DAX measures within MDX queries. By learning these concepts you will be able to use DAX queries as a data source for your reports, and for Excel tables.

Dashboards and Scorecards with Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Server

Dashboards and Scorecards Using Microsoft SharePoint Server and SQL Server

From an attractive, composite dashboard consisting of performance management scorecards, and reports, to the highly visual PivotViewer, this video introduces the world of dashboards running on Microsoft BI platform, focussing on SharePoint Server PerformancePoint Services and SQL Server.

Introduction to SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence (Video)

Big Data

In this first, 45-minute module of our training course introducing Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies, we focus on Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The main objective of this video is to introduce the big picture of Microsoft’s data platform engine, released in 2012. This module discusses its 10 key BI innovations: BI Semantic Model (BISM), Analysis Services Tabular Mode, PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, Power View, Self-Service Data Alerts, Big Data and Apache Hadoop integration, Columnstore Indexes (xVelocity for Data Warehousing), Spatial Data, Unstructured Data, and, briefly, Data Quality Services. Through a number of slides, graphics, and a short demo showing Power View in PowerPoint, you will learn how to take advantage of the newest abilities of SQL Server in your own BI projects. If you would like to deepen your skills, make sure you also watch the remaining modules in this series, which focus on: the new release of PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, Power View, and the BI Semantic Model and Analysis Services Tabular Mode.

Data Mining Concepts and Tools

This 50-minute video introduces the fundamental concepts of Data Mining, a powerful analytical technology. You will learn about the process of data mining and the SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Data Mining architecture, and its key concepts, including: Cases, representing your data, Mining Structures, used to describe Cases, Mining Models, and Mining Algorithms, which extract patterns hiding in your data. We briefly introduce 9 of the Microsoft data mining algorithms: Naïve Bayes, Clustering, Decision Trees, Association Rules, Sequence Clustering, Neural Networks, Logistics Regression, Linear Regression, and Time Series. You will also learn about Column Content and Data Types, Discretization, and data Distributions, as you follow the module and the 5 demos shown in it.

Introduction to DAX in Excel

Using Aggregation Iterators (SUMX) to Calculate Gross Profit Margins

Introduce yourself to Data Analysis Expression (DAX) by learning the syntax and the fundamental functions of this language in this 40-minute video by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari, world-known SSAS experts. DAX is the language used to define calculation expressions in PowerPivot. It works in Excel 2010, and it is in the core of Excel 2013. DAX is also the programming language for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular Models. It has a simple syntax that will be instantly familiar to Excel users, because it replicates Excel syntax wherever possible. Nevertheless, DAX also introduces many new functions, in order to express tabular and columnar concepts, which are not part of Excel workbooks—Excel is focused on cells and ranges, while DAX focuses on entire columns and tables. By watching this video, which includes 9 demos, you will become familiar with the basic syntax of DAX, and you will be ready to write your first calculations.

Books about BI

This article lists books about BI, Statistics, Data Warehousing and Management, which we recommend in conjunction with our courses and seminars.

DAX Evaluation Context

FILTER and ALL DAX Function for Context Manipulation

Evaluation Context is fundamental to understanding the behavior of DAX. Marco Russo explains: row and filter contexts, their propagation through relationships, and manipulation using: FILTER, ALL, EARLIER, VALUES, RELATED, and RELATEDTABLE functions in this 50-minute video that contains 8 detailed demos. Learning these concepts will enable you to write correctly functioning formulas, and it will prepare you to fully understand CALCULATE, the most important function in Data Analysis Expressions, as well as the remaining modules of our DAX video series.

Why Cluster and Segment Data?

Cluster-based data segmentation

Clustering is a popular data mining technique, often used for segmentation. Rafal introduces it in this short video, focusing on the reasons why it is useful for finding non-traditional segments. In the demo, you will see a clustering model, and we will use it to categorise new data in Excel.

Data Mining Model Building, Testing and Predicting with Microsoft SQL Server and Excel

Data Mining Model Building, Testing, and Predicting  Microsoft SQL Server

This 1-hour-20-minute video discusses the entire lifecycle of a Data Mining Model. You will learn how to build models and mining structures, starting by creating a Data Source and Data Source View, how to train it with your data, and how to view the results. Most importantly, you will also understand how to verify a model's validity, by applying tests of accuracy, reliability, and usefulness. You will understand, and you will also see being used, such key verification techniques as: a Lift Chart, Profit Chart, Classification Matrix, and Cross Validation. Finally, you will see how to predict unknown outcomes using your model. Not only will you hear in-depth explanations, but you will also see 11 live demos, showing you all the aspects of working with Data Mining Models, including using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), and Microsoft Excel, for predicting (scoring) sales to future, potential customers, based on their demographic characteristics, and their shopping habits, just discovered using a Decision Tree, and a simple mining model.

Introduction to BI Semantic Model & SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services

Using SQL Server Data Tools to Create a New Tabular Project

The fourth module of this course focuses on the new BI Semantic Model (BISM), and its implementation as a tabular model hosted by SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS) Tabular Mode. This 1 hour 20 minute video includes discussions, slides, and diagrams, and an in-depth, 35 minute demo block, showing you the key BISM and SSAS Tabular Mode principles in 13 detailed, hi-resolution demonstrations, which you can select, follow, pause and repeat at any time, by using Jump to a chapter links.

Multidimensional Analysis with Microsoft Excel and SQL Server

Multidimensional Analysis with Microsoft Excel and SQL Server

For most people, the easiest tool for opening and navigating a multidimensional (OLAP) cube is Microsoft Excel. In this short demo you can also see how to perform basic slice-and-dice analysis, drill into and filter using dimensions, and summarise trends with a sparkline.

Predictive Analysis with Microsoft SQL Server & Excel

Market Basket Analysis Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Excel

Predictive Analysis is an advanced form of Business Intelligence, which uses Data Mining. In this short demo you will see how Microsoft Excel makes it easy to use.

Introduction to PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012

The second module in this online training course, offers a 1 hour introduction to PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, sometimes referred to as PowerPivot “2”. This module is of importance to those who need to model tabular data for analytics, or who simply want to explore a data set, before making a decision if it is worthwhile analysing it further. Also, if you plan on learning about BI Semantic Model, you need to know about PowerPivot “2”, as Tabular Mode of SSAS, and BI Semantic Model, make extensive use of the new PowerPivot features, extending them to enterprise needs. This module is presented as a series of slides, graphics, discussions, and 15 demos, recorded in high-resolution, so that you can follow the steps yourself.

Microsoft Business Analytics with Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and SQL Server 2012

Microsoft Business Analytics with Office 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, and SQL Server 2012

Microsoft Business Analytics combines Business Intelligence with Data Warehousing and Big Data Analytics. This 1-hour 20-minute video by Rafal Lukawiecki introduces this concept by showing you how real-world analytics, created by a power user in Excel 2013, can be shared with others in a company, using SharePoint Server 2013, and subsequently scaled-up to the needs of an enterprise, by means of a SQL Server 2012 SP1 Analysis Services Tabular Model. Rafal covers the entire subject broadly, showing you some of the new Excel and SharePoint 2013 BI features, such as: the new Power View, Interactive Geospatial Maps, Data Models, Quick Explore, Timelines, and many more, in an extensive, 9-part, 55-minute, high-def demo, focusing on the enterprise lifecycle of user-created analytics, which forms the core of this video tutorial.

Introduction to Power View in SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services

Introduction to SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Power View

The third module of this course introduces the newest addition to the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform: Power View, which is part of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services. You will hear explanations of the fundamental concepts of Power View, such as Measures, and you will see all of its key features, including data visualizations, such as the animated Bubble Charts, in 17 hi-def easy-to-follow demos. You will hear how to source data for Power View, and how to share your reports by exporting them to PowerPoint, as a presentation, with slides that literally come alive in front of your audience!

HappyCars Sample Data Set for Learning Data Mining

Data Mining Structures Included in the HappyCars Sample Data Set

HappyCars is our educational sample data set, used for teaching data science and data mining. It comes with SQL Server tables containing sample data, such as Customers, NonCustomers, Sales, and CustomerActivity, plus a few utility views, amongst others. It also comes with a SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) project, HappyCarsDM, which contains a prebuilt data source and views, and a series of Mining Structures containing Mining Models, which we explain in the videos of our online Data Mining training course. We also provide a version suitable as a SQL Azure Database, which is particularly useful while learning Azure ML. It is available, at no additional cost, to our Full Access Members, as an educational aide, helpful when following our videos.

MDX: Member and Set Functions

Chris Webb explains the Ancestor MDX function

Being able to think in sets is the key to being able to write more advanced queries and calculations in MDX. Chris Webb introduces the commonest MDX functions that return sets in this 40-minute, demo-driven video, including: .MEMBERS, CROSSJOIN(), .PARENT, DESCENDANTS( ), ANCESTOR(), .NEXTMEMBER, .PREVMEMBER, .LEAD() and .LAG(). You will need these functions for rudimentary navigation using MDX.

Spatial Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Server

Spatial Reporting with SQL Server Report Builder and SharePoint Server

Spatial reports can be created using Report Builder, which comes with SQL Server. They execute in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and they can be hosted in SharePoint Server. This video shows the steps you need to take to create a simple bubble report that displays customer numbers, taken from a cube, on a map of the United States. You will also see how to share that report with co-workers using SharePoint.

Decision Trees in Depth

Microsoft Decision Trees

Decision Trees are the most useful Microsoft data mining technique: they are easy to use, simple to interpret, and they work fast, even on very large data sets. At heart, a decision tree is just a tree of nodes. Each node represents a logical decision, which you can just think of as a choice of a value of one of your inputs that would make the most profound difference to the output that you wish to study. This almost 2-hour, in-depth video by Rafal starts with an explanation of the three key uses of decision trees, which are: data classification, regression, and associative analysis, and then takes you on a comprehensive tour of this data mining algorithm, covering it in slides and detailed, hi-def demos, which you can follow. Once you try a decision tree a few times, you will realise how easy, and useful they are to help you understand any sets of data.

Data Warehousing and Integration with Microsoft SQL Server

Data Warehousing and Data Integration with Microsoft SQL Server

This video outlines basic concepts of Data Warehousing and Data Integration using Microsoft SQL Server, focussing on its Integration Services (SSIS) component.

Self-Service Data Mash-ups with Microsoft PowerPivot and SharePoint Server

Creating a Relationship Using Microsoft PowerPivot

This video shows data being mashed-up from multiple sources using Microsoft PowerPivot and DAX, all by the end user, in a self-service way.

Clustering in Depth

Clustering: Cluster Profiles Diagram in SSDT

Microsoft Clustering is a workhorse algorithm of data mining. It is used to explore data, segment and categorise it, and to detect outliers (or exceptions, anomalies). Each cluster represents naturally occuring groupings of your data points, grouped by their similarities, as described by their various attributes. In this in-depth, 1-hour 50-minute video, Rafal explains clustering concepts, the entire process, and all of the algorithm parameters. The detailed 12-part demo, which forms the heart of this tutorial, shows you the iterative process of clustering, explaining how to segment your own data, such as customers, or products.

Data Science Concepts: Cases and Statistics

Rafal shows density plot using ggplot2 in R

Let Rafal, expert on predictive analytics, data mining, and machine learning introduce the most fundamental data science concepts in this 1-hour video: cases (or observations), with their inputs and predictable outputs, descriptive statistics, and the basic tools, including Azure ML, SQL, Excel, R, RStudio, and Rattle.

Data Science Concepts: Machine Learning and Models

Rafal discusses confusion (classification) matrix and prediction thresholds

This 1-hour module, by Rafal, introduces the essence of data science: machine learning and its algorithms, modelling and model validation. Data science differs from traditional, statistics-driven approach to data analysis in that it extensively uses those algorithms for the detection of patterns that help us build predictive models. Make sure to watch this video before you progress to the ones introducing Azure ML.

Next Year in Machine Learning, Data Science, AI and BI

ML, BI, DS, and AI Trends that Shaped 2019

The trends that shaped 2019 and predictions for the future of machine learning and analytics. Why you should abandon Hadoop, brush up on statistics and obsess less about technology.

Designing Dimensions

Chris shows an attribute hierarchy of a time dimension

Let Chris Webb explain to you how to build dimensions: one of the foundations of multidimensional cube design, in this 1-hour video. You will also learn the concept of attributes, and their relationships, parent/child and ragged hierarchies, data aggregation, and Date dimensions.

Cube Deployment, Processing and Admin

Chris introduces cube processing strategies

This 30-minute video by Chris Webb discusses the operational side of cubes: deployment, processing, backup and restore, synchronization, and scripting.

Cube Security

Chris explains how to create dynamic cube security

In this 30-minute video, part of our Cube Design series, Chris Webb explains SQL Server Analysis Services security. You will learn about administrative and data security, the latter on three levels: at cube, dimension hierarchy, and at cell levels.

Code and Data Samples (R, R Services, SSAS)

Download code and the data for a few of the demos used in Rafal’s Practical Data Science courses, including: classifier performance in R, mortgage default logistic regression and the 10 million row data set, cross-sell and recommendations using Association Rules in SQL Server Analysis Services Data Mining.

Microsoft Machine Learning Technologies: View Towards 2020

New Azure Machine Learning: Performance Metrics

What is new in the new Azure Machine Learning? What is changing in the rest of the Microsoft machine learning platform, notably ML Server and SQL Server ML Services, the 2019 Big Data Clusters, and frameworks: Automated ML, ML.NET, MicrosoftML, RevoScale, and MLLSpark? You will also see an overview of the popularity of non-Microsoft tools in this video—make sure to read the essay, under the video, too.