Leverage Power BI with SQL Server 2014 & Azure: Webinar Recap

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Earlier in the year, we held a popular webinar on utilizing Power BI, a new Microsoft offering (then in preview). Of course, much has changed since that previous webinar, with Power BI being available to the general public and the release of SQL Server 2014.
In light of those changes, my colleague, Andy Tegethoff, a Microsoft BI architect and senior level consultant here at Perficient, again shared his knowledge around Power BI. Click here for the replay.
During Wednesday’s session, Andy showed attendees how they can host their entire BI solution in the cloud, using Power BI along with SQL Server 2014 and Azure. He kicked things off with a quick review of Power BI, and then talked about how to access your data with Power BI. Next up was the topic of SQL Server 2014 – specifically, what’s new with the latest version and what does that mean for you / the user? For starters, dramatically improved query performance with in-memory DB options, and improved integration with cloud of backup, hot failover, DR, or even primary data storage. As part of this, Andy also discussed what this all means when integrating with Microsoft Azure.
This segued into Azure Virtual Machines and Big Data with HDInsight, as Andy reviewed what you need to host BI in the cloud using SQL Server 2014 and Azure vs. Power BI in the cloud with Office 365. He wrapped up with advice and lessons learned around cloud BI with SQL Server.
The attendees asked great questions, and Andy had time to answer them. You can view the webinar replay here, including the Q&A. If you are looking to learn more about BI in the cloud, Andy recently authored a white paper, ‘The Possibilities of Cloud BI with Microsoft Azure,” available here.