Many years ago, when I taught myself about SAS, I had two books in hand, and two questions in mind—how to get the software, how to get more data to practice those skills I obtained from reading books.
For learners of SQL server and business intelligence in general, I think it is important to have answers of these similar questions. This page provides a map to my version of many answers. Unlike posts, which usually appear on page in chronic order, this page sorts my posts in logic order for learner to get an easy start.
| Learning Steps | Learning Area | Tools from Microsoft | Tools from Other Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Installation | Easiest way(highly recommended) SQL server installation Azure platform sample data | Oracle 12g installation AWS platform |
| 2 | SQL Most Basic | T-SQL | PL SQL |
| 3 | ETL tool | SSIS | Informatica |
| 4 | Analysis and Reporting | SSAS SSRS | |
| 5 | Self-Service BI | Power BI | Tableau |
| 7 | Big Data | Azure Data Lake | |
| 8 | Machine Learning |