In 2015 I released the first version of VertiPaq Analyzer, a tool to quickly analyze the structure and data distribution of a Tabular model that can be used with Analysis Services and Power BI.  Read more

A name is important. The right name is important. In this post, I reflect on the choice of names in the Microsoft BI stack. From time to time, a bad name arises. Not a big issue, as together we tend…  Read more

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Direct Lake vs. Import mode in Power BI

What is the right choice between Direct Lake and Import mode in Power BI?  Read more

In January I published an article about how to optimize high cardinality columns in VertiPaq. In the meantime, VertiPaq has been rebranded to xVelocity: the official name is now “xVelocity in-memory analytics engine (VertiPaq)” but using xVelocity and VertiPaq when…  Read more

Tomorrow January 10th, 2012 at 3pm Eastern Time (which is 8pm GMT) I will deliver a free online session for the PASS DW/BI Virtual Chapter. This is the official description of the session. Vertipaq vs OLAP: Change Your Data Modeling…  Read more

When you create a PowerPivot workbook or a BISM Tabular model (new in Analysis Services 2012), you store data by using the VertiPaq engine, which is an in-memory columnar database. Instead of considering the row of a table as the…  Read more

If you work with Power Pivot, Power BI, or Analysis Services Tabular, you probably already know VertiPaq Analyzer. If you never used it, with the new release 1.7 you have another couple of very good reason to try it. VertiPaq…  Read more

During the writing of The Definitive Guide to DAX I wanted a simple way to analyze the content and distribution of data compressed in the VertiPaq engine, used by Analysis Services Tabular, Power Pivot and Power BI models. I always…  Read more

At the end of June 2012, I was in Amsterdam to present some sessions at Teched Europe 2012 and, while preparing the material for the demos (yes, the best demos are the ones I prepare at the last minute), I…  Read more

Data modeling in Tabular is different from Multidimensional. I spend much time teaching people that they need to change their mind when approaching the Vertipaq engine, because it is a different tool with different capabilities. Nevertheless, I still have a…  Read more