Nikola Ilic
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datamozart.bsky.social
Nikola Ilic
@datamozart.bsky.social
I'm making music from the data🎶 #PowerBI addict, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, O'Reilly Instructor, Pluralsight Author, blogger, speaker, learner...Father of 2, Barca and Messi fan⚽
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A moment of disbelief!

A little more than a year ago, when I started writing a book about #MicrosoftFabric, I couldn't have imagined that the day would come when I would have a physical copy in my hands...
When your #MicrosoftFabric capacity becomes Gotham...🦇🦇
November 14, 2025 at 9:13 AM
One of the main reasons why our #PowerBI community rocks is - taking care of other people and being nice to them...

Look what just arrived as part of #PowerBI 10th year anniversary celebration.

Huge thanks to @justrie.bsky.social for taking great care about our community🙏
November 14, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Nikola Ilic
Turn seconds into milliseconds in your #PowerBI reports. @datamozart.bsky.social's new article demonstrates the significant performance gains achieved by using aggregations on large-scale datasets.
The Ultimate Guide to Power BI Aggregations | Towards Data Science
Aggregations are one of the most powerful features in Power BI — learn how to leverage this feature to improve the performance of your Power BI solution
towardsdatascience.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:15 AM
SSMS 22 is GA!!!

My favorites:

1. Seeing the workspace name as a server name in the Object Explorer connections! I love these small life-improvement changes, as now it's much more convenient to work with #MicrosoftFabric items from different workspaces/servers
November 12, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Year 6 as a Microsoft Certified Trainer and counting!

Just renewed my MCT for another year. Training and knowledge sharing are definitely something that I enjoy most. Looking forward to continuing to teach people about Microsoft Data Platform products and solutions.

#MCT #MicrosoftFabric #PowerBI
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Achievement unlocked!

2 years ago, when I started publishing articles on Substack, I never imagined that we could reach these heights together! As of today, we are a tribe of 2,000+ subscribed members!

Thank you to each and every one of you!

Subscribe: datamozart.substack.com
November 2, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Looks like I still know a thing or two about the analytics engineering in #MicrosoftFabric😉

Just renewed my DP-600 certificate for another year.
October 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Big news from @oreilly.bsky.social!

Join expert-led, live courses and get a 30% discount!

My "Getting started with #MicrosoftFabric" live course on December 1st is now $104 instead of $149!

Simply enter the Z5P1KDRU code and grab your seat now: www.oreilly.com/live/event-d...
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
My favorite bronze-silver-gold "architecture"😉😉 Although the landing zone comes in the end in this scenario (it's my stomach)😂😂

Made this photo while hanging out with my friends Khaled Chowdhury and Siva Mani in Orlando.
October 28, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Some tricks never get old!

This morning, I was helping someone with optimizing the #PowerBI semantic model size. They have already exhausted most of the mainstream techniques for trimming the model, except for one hidden little gem!
Want to learn more?

datamozart.substack.com/p/hidden-lit...
Hidden little gem that can save your Power BI life!
Power BI is full of hidden gems! This one can literally make you a real Power BI hero out of nowhere!
datamozart.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Tayra!

That's the name of the animal on @shbwatson.bsky.social and my "Analytics Engineering with #MicrosoftFabric and #PowerBI" book cover, which we are currently writing for @oreilly.bsky.social.

We've added another chapter to an early release of the book: learning.oreilly.com/library/view...
Analytics Engineering with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI
While Microsoft Power BI has dominated the business intelligence market for years and is a go-to tool for creating visually appealing, interactive reports and dashboards, it's now... - Selection from ...
learning.oreilly.com
October 21, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Another day full of learning, sharing, and simply enjoying the community vibe with friends at the #SummitNA.

Our "All roads lead to #MicrosoftFabric" panel talk was definitely a highlight of the day. Also, meeting in person a legend @powerbidude.bsky.social.
October 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM
BEST-SWAG-EVER!!!

This year, I had a privilege and honor of being a member of the programming committee for the Dynamic Communities Summit NA. And, as a token of appreciation, look what I got - yes, a bobble-head figure of me!!! Ok, perhaps more handsome than real me, but hey 😉😂
October 21, 2025 at 2:26 AM
NEW BLOG POST!

In this short post, you will learn how to quickly identify if your published Direct Lake model uses the OneLake or SQL option

data-mozart.com/direct-lake-...

#MicrosoftFabric #PowerBI
Direct Lake Models: Are They OneLake or SQL? (And How to Check!) - Data Mozart
Learn how to quickly identify if your published Direct Lake model uses OneLake or SQL option
data-mozart.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:54 AM
NEW BLOG POST!

Dataflows were (rightly?) considered "the slowest and least performant option" for ingesting data into #PowerBI #MicrosoftFabric. However, things are changing rapidly, and the latest DF enhancements may change the way we play the game.

data-mozart.com/from-dataslo...
From 'Dataslows' to Dataflows: The Gen2 Performance Revolution in Microsoft Fabric - Data Mozart
Dataflows were (rightly?) considered "the slowest and least performant option" for ingesting data into Power BI/Microsoft Fabric. However, things are changing rapidly and the latest Dataflow enhanceme...
data-mozart.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM
"What should I do now?!"

That's the most common question we've been hearing from #PowerBI professionals since #MicrosoftFabric was introduced as an "end-to-end analytics platform" in November 2023.
Book your seat now: online.fliphtml5.com/PBIGevent/th...
Masterclass: Level Up your Power BI game with Microsoft Fabric
online.fliphtml5.com
October 12, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Nikola Ilic
Learn the complete lifecycle of streaming data within @Microsoft.com Fabric. @datamozart.bsky.social's new article teaches the end-to-end process.
Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric: The Ultimate Guide | Towards Data Science
Once upon a time, handling streaming data was considered an avant-garde approach. Since the introduction of relational database management systems in the 1970s and traditional data warehousing…
towardsdatascience.com
October 6, 2025 at 7:12 PM
4!

That's the number of seats remaining for my 2-day Academy Class about everything #MicrosoftFabric at Summit NA in less than two weeks in Orlando.

Registration closes this Friday, so this is your final chance to grab your spot and learn about all the Fabric components
October 6, 2025 at 6:40 AM
My dear #MicrosoftFabric friends, if you fancy some (longer) Sunday reading, I have you covered!

My ultimate guide to Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric has just been published for @towardsdatascience.com.

towardsdatascience.com/real-time-in...
Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric: The Ultimate Guide | Towards Data Science
Once upon a time, handling streaming data was considered an avant-garde approach. Since the introduction of relational database management systems in the 1970s and traditional data warehousing systems...
towardsdatascience.com
October 5, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Happening this week!

If you want to raise your analytics game to a whole new level and get ready for the most popular #Microsoft data certificate ever (#DP600 #MicrosoftFabric Analytics Engineer), join me for a 2-day Bootcamp at @oreilly.bsky.social.

aka.data-mozart.com/dp600
October 4, 2025 at 8:42 AM
NEW VIDEO ALERT!

Is your data loading process crawling? Are you spending hours refreshing massive amounts of data? This 10-minute tutorial is the streamlined solution you’ve been waiting for!

#MicrosoftFabric #notebook #lakehouse

youtu.be/_YpdCcww1yU
Fabric Data Engineering: Implementing Incremental Refresh in 10 Minutes!
YouTube video by Data Mozart
youtu.be
October 3, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Had a great time presenting this evening for the Vancouver Fabric UG my brand new session about crafting medallion the right way (if there is a single right way at all?).

Amazing conversation in the chat, and many great questions from the audience.

Thanks everyone!
September 25, 2025 at 8:23 PM
📢NEW COURSE ALERT📢

I'm beyond excited to announce that my 22nd course at @pluralsight.bsky.social has just been released!

I'm taking you on a journey of modifying data with T-SQL in a safe and efficient way.

pluralsight.com/library/cour...
Modify Data with T-SQL
pluralsight.com
September 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Getting ready for the prestigious #DP600 (#MicrosoftFabric Analytics Engineer) exam?

On October 8th and 9th, I'll be running a 2-day of 4 hours "DP-600 Bootcamp" at @oreilly.bsky.social.

learning.oreilly.com/live-events/...
Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate Bootcamp (DP-600)
Learn in-demand skills and become a certified Fabric Analytics Engineer
learning.oreilly.com
September 23, 2025 at 8:45 AM
"Do I need a landing zone?" "Should my silver layer be modeled as a 3rd NF tables, or just as a 'cleansed' version of the source data?" These are some of the questions we will address this Thursday at the Vancouver Fabric UG meetup.

Join for free: www.meetup.com/vancouver-fa...
Chief Data Alchemist Playbook - Crafting Medallion Architecture the Right Way!, Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:00 AM | Meetup
For hundreds of years, alchemists tried to figure out how to turn ordinary metals into gold. The modern version of alchemists, let's call them Data Alchemists, try to turn
www.meetup.com
September 22, 2025 at 6:56 AM