Hmmm, once again Microsoft’s job ads give away a few details on upcoming products. The SQL Azure team mentioned on their blog they were hiring, so I had a look what jobs were on offer. And lo-and-behold, there were a few jobs there for developers and testers for an Azure BI team. Here are two examples:
https://careers.microsoft.com/JobDetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=1&jid=14197&jlang=EN
https://careers.microsoft.com/JobDetails.aspx?ss=&pg=0&so=&rw=2&jid=14206&jlang=EN
I quote from the first:
The SQL Azure team leads the expansion of the existing SQL Server business to the Cloud. As part of Microsoft’s comprehensive Azure Services offering we entered commercial availability earlier this year with a relational database service. We are extending the platform to bring Microsoft’s market-leading Business Intelligence services as part of a self-service BI solution.
and
Prior experience with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) or other business intelligence technologies is desired
To be fair, we already knew that SSAS and SSRS in the cloud were coming at some point – it was on several publicly-available slide decks. Also, with PowerPivot being flavour-of-the-month and the cloud being the cloud, it’s hardly surprising that it’s a self-service BI solution. I dare say Dallas and OData fit in there somewhere too (incidentally, while we’re on the subject of OData, check out the Sesame Data Browser). The fact that all these ads have gone up recently and some of them talk about the ‘new’ BI team suggests development hasn’t started yet though, so I guess we won’t be seeing PowerPivot-in-the-cloud for another year or two; perhaps in time for Denali?
"Bring your (existing) OLAP solution into new dimensions"BI self-service on top of a cost/time efficient Microsoft BI platform is indeed the overall theme. IMHO: It\’s a more a challenge about (materialized) concepts rather than pure base technologies. A sample therefore is the SSAS Value Pack (www.ibax.ch), which illustrates how BI self-service concepts can be turned into fact – on base of existing powerful platforms like SSAS 2008: best-of-breed modeling, query performance, re-usable solution components, maintenance-friendly implementation aligned to sustainable cost/time-efficiency.Keep in mind: it\’s primarily the business need, which drives solution (on top of enabling technologies) ;-)CheersMichael