Microsoft BI ranks highest in ability to execute by Gartner

Microsoft once again is ranked the highest in its ability to execute by Gartner in its magic quadrant for Business Intelligence.  The report is pretty long and boring, but if I were distill it down to a few salient points, I would choose the following: Companies see a dramatic improvement in BI capabilities going from … Continue reading Microsoft BI ranks highest in ability to execute by Gartner

SAP Hana vs Microsoft SQL Server, the war is on…

and the Germans are making the first move... I have written two posts about Hana vs. xVelocity (Part I and Part II) making the basic point that there is nothing truly visionary or revolutionary in SAP Hana from the technology perspective and that a customer can get all the benefits (or rather alleged benefits as … Continue reading SAP Hana vs Microsoft SQL Server, the war is on…

SAP HANA versus Microsoft Business Intelligence and xVelocity, take two…

Not surprisingly, my original post generated huge traffic to my blog as well as a couple of good comments. I am sorry that it took me a while to respond, but now that it is Saturday and I am at Starbucks,I don't really have any excuse not to respond anymore… Before I jump into a … Continue reading SAP HANA versus Microsoft Business Intelligence and xVelocity, take two…

SAP HANA versus Microsoft Business Intelligence and xVelocity

This will be in a long rant format as I am still trying to organize my thoughts around this subject. Before I start comparing and contrasting the two vendors, I just wanted to make a quick statement to get something off my chest: Generally speaking, HANA is a good business decision for SAP as it … Continue reading SAP HANA versus Microsoft Business Intelligence and xVelocity

Choosing a Tabular or Multidimensional model in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services

Many great discussions are taking place about the future of the Multidimensional mode for the Analysis Services.  It is very clear where the majority of the investment went for the 2012 version (hint... think rows and columns and not multidimensional).  At the same time, one might argue that the traditional or Multidimensional set of features is already … Continue reading Choosing a Tabular or Multidimensional model in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services