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The Golden Triangle: Azure, TimeXtender, and Power BI
Within the Business Intelligence (BI) industry, there's a lot of software to choose from. Each has its own pros and cons. There are various cloud services, Data Management Platforms, and BI tools you can use. At E-mergo, we're convinced that when you use Power BI as your analytics tool, there's an ideal combination to be made between BI, Cloud, and Data Warehouse tools. This combination consists of Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Azure, and TimeXtender, and we sometimes call it the 'golden triangle'. Below you can read more about these three, how they work together, and why we think it's an ideal combination.
Cloud: Microsoft Azure
The first part of the golden triangle is the cloud, in other words the place where you store your data. When you think of Microsoft Azure, you probably immediately think of the cloud. And that's understandable — in the IT world, Azure is known as Microsoft's public cloud platform. But Microsoft Azure is much more than just a cloud. It's also possible to use various other Azure services.
When you use Azure, data is moved to Microsoft's data centers. Microsoft takes the security and management of the physical layer in the data center (such as servers, network connections, cooling, etc.) off your hands. This saves companies a lot of money that they would otherwise have to spend on managing their own data centers. It's also possible, by the way, to use Microsoft's cloud services on a limited scale in your own data centers. For this you use the AzureStack platform.
Azure also offers a number of advantages over other cloud services. For example, Azure is very fast when it comes to implementation, operation, and scalability. On-premise solutions can't match Azure's advantages in that area. In addition, the platform is perfect for innovation because applications can be rolled out quickly. Changes are carried out without interruptions. This makes Azure an ideal platform for developers to come up with new ideas and add them quickly. Azure also offers an API management platform that adapts to you. This platform securely connects to back-end services and can be used anywhere.
Data Management: TimeXtender
The second part of the golden triangle is Data Management. When it comes to Data Management, we believe TimeXtender is the perfect solution for Power BI. When your company gets started with unlocking data, that's a job you'd rather not do manually. Especially not when it comes to a large organization with multiple systems or applications.
TimeXtender can help you automate this process. It's a Data Management Platform used for collecting and managing data and logic. The platform actually functions as a kind of foundation for your data, on top of which you can build various (analytics) applications. The platform helps throughout the data process, from ingestion all the way to visualizing the data. In addition, with TimeXtender it's also possible to create datamarts (for example for Power BI) and data lakes.
With TimeXtender you can therefore develop much faster because it generates automated (ETL) script, which also saves you time on maintenance. This way you easily build a future-proof data warehouse that any developer can work with. TimeXtender also has even more advantages; for example, it has a drag and drop interface, it's possible to connect to virtually any source, and it's built to use the advanced features of the Microsoft SQL server. This ensures that TimeXtender seamlessly
Data Analytics: Microsoft Power BI
The last part of the golden triangle is Data Analytics. Power BI is at this one of the most successful Data Analytics products on the market. Gartner thinks so too, having recently rated the tool as a leader. The interactive data visualization tool helps you make data-driven decisions by letting you analyze data from various systems in one dashboard using KPIs and data visualizations.
Power BI is a self-service tool, meaning you can quickly and easily get started building dashboards yourself. To make good use of the power of self-service analytics, it's important that the data used for it is properly in order. This helps you avoid the risk of errors in calculations or definitions. By preparing the data with TimeXtender, you create a strong foundation so that employees are able to build dashboards on top of it themselves, allowing them to quickly gather insights on their own.
By visualizing various data sources via TimeXtender in Power BI, you quickly get a complete picture of your data. The software also makes use of the latest innovations in Microsoft AI, giving users without data scientist experience the ability to develop machine learning models and quickly uncover insights in structured and unstructured data.
Why the golden triangle?
Why do Microsoft Azure, TimeXtender, and Power BI together form the golden triangle? Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that all these programs need each other and reinforce each other. Power BI needs TimeXtender's solid foundation to make self-service BI possible, TimeXtender needs Power BI to visualize the data, and TimeXtender and Power BI need Azure to prepare and process the data optimally in a cost-efficient way.