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Analysis Services (SSAS) Training Courses

We run classroom and live online training courses with small course sizes in SSAS Tabular Model.

We currently run the following scheduled SSAS courses:

SSAS - tabular model

Not exactly the course contents you want? Why not consider organising your own tailored SSAS course)?

More about our Analysis Services training

Everything was simple in the Analysis Services world before SQL Server 2012 came out. When you installed SQL Server, you got:

Software	Used to
SSRS (Reporting Services)	Create reports
SSIS (Integration Services)	Extract, transform and load data
SSAS (Analysis Services)	Create cubes to show information from data warehouses

From SQL Server 2012, Analysis Services split into two parts:

Version of SSAS	Language used for calculations
Tabular model	DAX
Multi-dimensional model	MDX

What's important to realise is that the two versions are completely incompatible. When you install SQL Server, you'll be asked which SSAS version you want to instal.

So which should you learn? You may not have a choice: if your organisation has been using SSAS since before 2012 or so, and is full of geeky people who go round muttering about cubes and dimensions, it's likely you're heavily committed to using the older multi-dimensional version of SSAS.

However, if you have a free choice (perhaps because you're evaluating or setting up SSAS for the first time), we'd recommend you choose the newer tabular model of Analysis Services. Here are some reasons why:

Area	Notes
Leveraging existing skills	It's likely that you'll be familiar with relational databases, which will stand you in good stead when you come to create a data model in SSAS Tabular. By contrast it's likely that you're NOT used to thinking in multi-dimensional terms, so you'll find creating a cube quite a foreign idea.
Ease of use	SSAS Multi-dimensional shows its age. It includes concepts like attribute hierarchies which are hard to understand and explain, whereas SSAS Tabular was written more recently, and (it appears) by programmers who also got out a bit and spoke to other humans!
Future-proofing	Microsoft aren't developing SSAS Multi-dimensional these days, whereas SSAS Tabular receives major updates in every new version of SQL Server.
DAX / MDX	DAX is slightly easier to learn than MDX (these are the two underlying languages used in SSAS for creating something called measures).
PowerPivot	SSAS Tabular is basically an adult's version of Power BI, so if you're familiar with Power BI Desktop (or PowerPivot) you'll have a head start.

Given all of the above, we have discontinued our SSAS Multi-Dimensional training, and only run courses in the newer SSAS Tabular model.

10 things our courses include

Each of our scheduled courses (whether classroom or online) includes:

Small course sizes - we have a maximum of 6 people on each classroom or online course.
A trainer! And not just anyone - our courses are only ever given by full-time Wise Owls.
Full colour courseware and exercises of oustanding quality.
A no cancellation guarantee (once you've booked and confirmed your training course, it will run).
A one gigabyte USB stick, containing course files, answers to exercises and (by the end of the course) your answers too, together with a nice pen.
Unofficial help after the course (although we don't have a dedicated post-course support line, in practice trainers will be happy to answer the odd ad hoc question after a course has taken place).
A certificate sent out digitally or in paper form (your choice) after each course, together with (for tailored courses) the trainer's thoughts on how the course went.

In addition, our classroom courses also include:

A computer for each delegate (obviously).
Lunch out each day at a local restaurant (chosen on the day of the course, after discussion!).
Unlimited refreshments during the day, including Tassimo or Nespresso coffee and a range of biscuits and snacks to keep you going through those dark afternoon hours.

Still not convinced? You can read hundreds of testimonials to the quality of our training (all attributed and added in the last 3 years.

About our SSAS training

Wise Owl don't have a data warehouse (we don't have enough data!), but if we did we'd store it using Analysis Services (Tabular), and use Integration Services to load data into it each night.

On our two-day SSAS courses we'll do our best to show you not just how to use the software, but why we're recommending particular modelling decisions. There are at most 6 people on any of our scheduled (public) courses, so there should be plenty of time for you to ask questions specific to your organisation too!

Other Analysis Services training resources

There are many ways in which we can help you learn SSAS!

Exercises

SQL Server Analysis Services could be very dull if you let it be! That's why we avoid the standard Microsoft databases, and use our own make-a-mammal one instead (like build-a-bear, but less patented).

SSAS tabular model exercises

Blogs

Here are the blogs we've written on SQL Server Analysis Services.

SSAS blogs (tabular)

Training venues

We run our SSAS courses in either London or Manchester, and also run onsite courses nationwide.

Analysis Services training in London

Analysis Services training in Manchester

Onsite SSAS training (UK)

Courseware manuals

You can sample or license the following courseware manuals.

Introduction to SSAS

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