Excel spreadsheets are fantastic bits of kit, but databases are not. Rather than making the full jump to replacing Excel with a database system, there is a halfway house you can consider.

To connect Excel to SQL database, open Excel and then create a new workbook. Or, open an existing Excel workbook you want to connect to SQL database. In the menu bar at the top of the page click Data, ...

This can lead to opportunities for combining and strengthening your team's technical skills with Excel, SQL or Python-related data models.

In addition to Excel, Microsoft offers other client tools for interacting with Big Data: BI Professionals can use BI Developer Studio to design OLAP cubes or scalable PowerPivot models in SQL ...