I recently installed SQL Server 2012 and began exploring the tabular models.  At first glance, they look very similar to PowerPivot and contain much of the same functionality.  In fact, both the tabular model and PowerPivot share the same engine and the DAX language. 

Although on the surface they appear very similar, several notable differences exist.

The following grid lists a few of the differences between the tabular model and PowerPivot:

	Tabular Model	PowerPivot
Scalability	No specified upper size limit Partitions to process large volumes of data Supports Direct Query and VertiPaq	2 GB Excel file size limit (for uploading to SharePoint) No partitioning VertiPaq only
Manageability	SSMS, AMO, ADOMD, XMLA, Deployment Wizard, PowerShell, Integration Services (Cathy Dumas’s Blog)	Excel / SharePoint
Securability	Row level and dynamic security	Excel workbook file security
Development Tool	Visual Studio	Excel

There are several new features common to both PowerPivot and Tabular Models:

• Hierarchies
• KPIs
• Perspectives

If you’d like to see a list of the new features in PowerPivot 2012, check out this link (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh272053(SQL.110).aspx).

comments powered by Disqus