Azure Data and Power BI News (November 2022)

November was a busy month for me. I feel a bit tired, but happy. A lot of great things are going on around - both in Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform and in the community. So, without further ado, let me share what caught my eye in the last month on the Azure Data and Power BI topics.

Azure Data

• As always, let me start with what's new in Azure Synapse Analytics. The November Update contained over a dozen of new features, this month most of them related to data explorer. My favorites: increasing Spark performance (up to 77%!), ADX Emulator (run your Kusto instance as Docker image!), Public Preview of R support in Synapse Spark (I know I shared it last month, but it's a big news!).
• But that's not all! Regardless of the monthly update, we shared another great news related to Azure Synapse - Azure Synapse Runtime for Apache Spark 3.3 is in Public Preview (including support for Delta 2.1)!
• When talking about Azure Synapse, I couldn't skip a new blog post by Amanjeet Singh from the Synapse CSE team - Data mesh: A perspective on using Azure Synapse Analytics to build data products. Read this post to find out more about Data Mesh and Data Product concepts, as well as about several patterns you can use with Azure Synapse Analytics.
• Two more Azure Synapse blog posts (both related to community) I must mention this month: Azure Synapse Influencer Program: Passionate about Azure Synapse! (find out more about what it takes to become Azure Synapse Influencer and what's in it for you!) and Azure Synapse MVP Corner - October 2022 (check out the latest content by Microsoft MVPs - community leaders and subject matter experts).
• One last thing I'd like to share this month about Azure Synapse - a great video by Kevin Chant on CI/CD for Serverless SQL Pools. Hot and important topic covered there by Kevin! Also, do not miss Kevin's awesome GitHub repos: template to perform CI/CD for Azure Synapse serverless SQL Pools using Azure DevOps and template to perform CI/CD for Azure Synapse serverless SQL Pools using GitHub Actions.
• SQL Server 2022, the most Azure-enabled release of SQL Server yet, with continued investments in performance, security, and availability, is Generally Available! Read the official announcement. For those of you based in Poland - do not miss the SQL Server 2022 Launch event series: https://www.sqlserver2022.pl/. I'll be there in Cracow on Saturday, December 3rd, to deliver a keynote and a breakout session on SQL 22 as a hybrid data platform ;-)
• Moving to Azure SQL world. Azure SQL Managed Instance (SQLMI) got a wave of features in Public Preview. Two absolutely awesome updates from this wave are provisioning SQLMI in under 30 minutes and the new stop-start capability.
• A cool update in Azure SQL - External REST Endpoints Integration (Public Preview) allows developers to call a REST endpoint natively from Azure SQL Database (check out for example use case in the Power BI section below)!
• Something for those of you who plan to migrate some SQL Servers to Azure - you can perform Azure SQL Database offline migrations in Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio (feature in Public Preview).
• Azure Databricks SQL Pro went GA in November. This option of SQL compute in Databricks provides enhanced performance and integration features. Read more: Generally available: Azure Databricks SQL Pro.
• A Public Preview of an important new feature came to Azure Functions last month. Azure SQL Trigger for Azure Functions allows change tracking and development of event-driven applications on Azure Functions for nearly any SQL database. Read more in the documentation of SQL Trigger: https://aka.ms/sqltrigger.
• Lots of goodies from Azure Data community this month. My readings from last month: a blog post Calling The Power BI REST API From TSQL In Azure SQL DB by Chris Webb (Microsoft), two blog posts - Mastering DP-500 Exam: Querying JSON Data in Serverless SQL Pools and Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse: Getting Started with Dynamics 365 Sales and Synapse Analytics - by Andy Cutler (Microsoft MVP), a blog post Dealing with ParquetInvalidColumnName error in Azure Data Factory by Adrian Chodkowski (Microsoft MVP), a blog post A GitHub CI/CD experience for Azure Synapse Link for SQL Server 2022 by Kevin Chant (Microsoft MVP), two parts of the "Building a Data Mesh Architecture in Azure" blog series - Frequently Asked Questions and Dead or Alive? - by Paul Andrew (Microsoft MVP).

Power BI

• Before I jump into the Power BI monthly update, there is one great news to share this month! We have just announced the support for paginated reports in Power BI Pro! From now on you don't have to buy Power BI Premium (capacity or Per User) to build and share pixel-perfect paginated reports in Power BI :-)
• Power BI November 2022 update contained several cool features. My favorites: the new Optimize ribbon (refresh specific visuals!), unshared and unsynchronized axis for small multiples, dynamic slicers built using field parameters, the new EVALUATEANDLOG function in DAX (see the intermediate results of your calculations in Profiler). Also, have you noticed the new accent color in Power BI (it's teal now, instead of yellow - see the header image of this article)? ;-)
• Power BI Premium continues its path to become a superset of Azure Analysis Services (AAS). This month the new cache refresh settings for Power BI Premium were announced. Lots of organizations have already migrated from AAS to Power BI Premium. However, some customers have expressed difficulty in completing a successful migration due to manual intervention. That's why the Power BI product team introduced the automated migration tool (now in Public Preview).
• Here is a small excerpt of content produced by the Power BI community in November: four great blog posts by Chris Webb (Microsoft) - Calling The Power BI REST API From TSQL In Azure SQL DB (yay!), How Much Data Can You Load Into Power BI? (kinda philosophical discussion, huh?), Performance Tuning Table Visuals With Filters Applied In Power BI (slow measure vs fast measure!), and Why You Should Defragment Your Fact Tables If You’re Using Incremental Refresh In Power BI Premium, a video by Patrick Mahoney (Microsoft) on how to speed up your Power BI visuals with Deneb in-visual calculations, a blog post How To Have An Automated Power BI Version Control With Power Automate by Vahid Doustimajd (Microsoft MVP), a combination of an article and a video on introducing horizontal fusion in DAX by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari (both Microsoft MVPs).
• Also, in November we got updates to two 3rd party Power BI tools: Bravo for Power BI 1.0 (GA) and Power BI Model Documenter v2.1.0. Check them out!

Traditionally, you can find all the official August announcements for Azure and Power BI on the?Azure Updates website?and the?Power BI blog. Also, you can be up to date with Azure Synapse by tracking?monthly update blog?and with Power BI thanks to the?Power BI Release Plan?report.

That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed the November edition of my newsletter. Make sure you share your findings and thoughts in the comments! Thanks for reading, and we catch up on the next one.