ProfessionalSQL

So, this one isn't as new as some of the other TechEd revelations (it was shown off last fall), but Donald Farmer was showing off a bit more of "Project Gemini" in a few sessions. Gemini, for those who are not familiar with it, is a mix of a few technologies that are as much about Excel and SharePoint as they are about SQL Server, but are most associated by SQL Server in the sense that they take Analysis Services engine capability and provide some of it to Excel and, to a smaller degree, SharePoint (mostly in that it enables Gemini based reports to be easily shown and monitored in SharePoint).

The concept is fairly simple: Self-Serve Analytics. Gemini includes compression technologies that can allow Excel to store many, many rows more efficiently that ever before (and by more efficiently, I mean by orders of magnitude). Indeed, the demo data used includes over 20,000,000 (that's millions folks!) rows of fairly wide data in a single sheet - all in memory (this is not a paging technology). The sheet Donald showed me was only a bit over 200MB in size (so, not only does it fit in memory, but it does so fairly easily).

Make no mistake - Gemini is not replacing Analysis Services with Excel. That said, it is allowing fairly rich analysis of data stored in Excel using expressions that, in many cases, simlulate a bit of MDX. What's more, the data can be taken in from a mix of sources (virtually anything you can import into Excel - including virtually anything that can be copied in a tabular format to the clipboard). You can even leverage yet another R2 feature by using Reporting Services generated data via an RSS feed. The results can be published in a Excel based report, but shown in SharePoint in a manner that makes it appear as a static report to the end viewer. The overall framework even works with a SharePoint administrator to make it relatively easy to check the published reports, determine where the data is sourced from, and monitor how often each source is updated.

Cool Stuff.

Gemini is something I suspect I'll wind up writing more about late this year when the R2 CTP is out and there is generally more to see, but, if you are interested in reporting and analytics at all, Gemini should be something to keep your eye on.

As a total aside, if you ever get the chance to see Donald Farmer speak, I highly recommend it. He has a humorous presentation style that makes for a good laugh, and he is often presenting things that turn out to be pretty cool for an end user.