While we all know that Apache Spark and Azure Databricks can be used for BI-style analysis, the fact remains that BI workloads weren’t a great fit for either one. But with the release of the Databricks SQL Analytics Workspaces and Endpoints, that has changed. Now you can spin up special Databricks clusters that run persistently and can be readily queried within the new workspaces and by an external BI tool. And if that BI tool is Power BI, you can take advantage of a new customized connector to make the experience far easier than before.

In addition, Databricks’ new Delta Engine/Proton technologies make BI queries on Databricks run faster than they did before. Add new data “lakehouse” features like Delta Live Tables and Unity Catalog, and users get versatile capabilities around the management of the data they’re querying. To learn more about Databricks SQL Analytics, and how to build great Power BI reports against your big data, come to this demo-heavy session.

You will learn:

• How to use Databricks SQL Analytics Workspaces
• Deployment of, and connecting Power BI to, SQL Analytics Endpoints
• Background on performance optimizations in the Databricks Delta Engine
• Use of Power BI composite models for efficient big data querying