More on the Future of BI with Microsoft, Dynamics AX and Project Gemini

In the past I mentioned Project Gemini, which will have a large impact on new features, and abilities for doing BI reporting, analytics in regard to Microsoft stack, including Dynamics AX.

The following is a great video that really goes into project Gemini, and covers what Gemini is.
Ch. 9 Project Gemini Video

From the details of the Video:
"Need to make timely business decisions without having to use complicated and sluggish analytical applications? Love to use Excel? Project Gemini is an Excel 2010 add-in that allows you to create powerful analyses by quickly manipulating millions of rows of data into a single Excel workbook and utilize Microsoft Office 2010 to share and collaborate on your insights with your team."

And..
"For all you spreadsheet jockeys out there, this should prove extraordinarliy useful to you when you need to crunch and analyze lots of data effeciently. Wow. 1,000,000 rows in Excel without causing a hang."

So this whole 'BI for the Masses' will start to have some real meaning behind the term, once Gemini becomes a reality.

Another great resource on this, can be found at the following link.:
Project "Gemini": Build powerful analytical applications



"You can combine native Excel 2010 functionality with Gemini’s in-memory engine to allow users to interactively explore and perform calculations on large data sets. In addition, you can easily streamline the process of integrating data from multiple sources – including corporate databases, spreadsheets, reports, and data feeds.

Share and collaborate with confidence by easily publishing your analysis to SharePoint 2010 and have other users enjoy the same slicer and fast-query capabilities when working on your Excel Services reports."

So now, with Office 2010, and the next release of Dynamics AX 2011, Analytics and Ad-hoc ability to really offer BI to masses will have a dramtic face lift and new offerings. This includes collaboration making use of SharePoint, which is already a big part of the Dynamics AX platform.

This is going to add to, the already existing abilities of BI options with Dynamics AX, and will add to also the ability to talior Role Centers and add meaningful data points and reports / abilities to those users that need those Dashboard or Role Centers.

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come.




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

The Future of Microsoft BI: Project 'Gemini'

So these past few weeks we have had a chance to take a dive into BI. What BI is from SQL Server, and how that is used as a based for the BI - SSRS, OLAP Cubes, KPI, etc. - inside Dynamics AX.

-What is SQL Server BI anyway?
-What is SQL Server BI anyway? - Part II

Now that we have a sense for what BI is in these terms, let take a step forward in the not to distant future, and look at what Microsoft has been, and still is calling, project 'Gemini'.

Project Gemini is the next step for the Microsoft BI solution, as is meant to be a real step forward into the theme of 'BI for the masses' (Dynamics BI: BI for the masses)

This BI for the masses theme, is Microsoft focus in making use of technologies companies already invest in, in order to offer up a true BI solution with. These technologies are: SQL Server, SharePoint & Office.

Project Gemini will allow information workers, to take and select from the millions of lines of data, from a datawarehouse, and use that to create reports, publish them on SharePoint, and use SharePoint to collaborate on them.

These reports can be created in Excel, driven by Excel, and super users making use of the latest Office technology will have the ability to create the reports they need, and have Excel Services update the reports as designed, and for delivery through SharePoint.

Also IT dept. will still have control over the data, and will be able to use the security and roles inside Excel Services, SharePoint and the SQL level to control access data. So this will not be a free for all, 70 versions of the truth problem. But an actual solution.

The Key points to project Gemini are:

- To ship First half of 2010

- Brand new technology, that will enable management of millions of lines of data called: ‘In Memory Business Intellegence Engine’

- This IMBIE (m-bye as I now call it) will reside with the excel environment. (based on current Microsoft information about it.)

- Excel services are then use to refresh the data, once published, and also used to delivery the data via SharePoint to other end users. Also Excel services can be used by IT pro’s to limit and control the access of data.

So this IMBIE technology, which is brand new, will be the key for allowing access and processing of massive amounts of data. This is the enabling technology, and look for more coverage on this, here on, in the future.

Also, TechEd, which is happening next week from May 11th - 15th will have a full demo of project Gemini from end to end, being driven by the Microsoft BI team. If your going, I highly recommend you check this out and the other BI sessions that will be going on there.

One last resource is a link to a nice presenatation that gives some insight into the bigger Microsoft BI picture, including working with data in the cloud.

BI Presentation from Microsoft

Well that's all for now. Check back soon, as more great post are coming out, and we will continue some BI as well, as we dive into actual, real world, Dynamics AX BI reports, technologies, and use with today's releases of technologies.

See you then!




"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"