Varigence, Inc.

This is the first blog entry focused on helping users prepare for the $10,000 Biml Challenge. This will get you a basic understanding of the BI markup language, Biml.

Biml is an XML-based language for specifying the full set of assets in a BI and/or DW project. With Biml you can design everything from relational databases, to data integration and transformation packages, and OLAP cubes. The Biml language is fully specified online. The rest of the blog entry will give a more informal look into how to use Biml.

Biml works in a way consistent with other XML-based languages. If you want to define something in Biml, specify the element for that item. For example,

When you have a technology that drastically increases the productivity of BI and Data Warehouse developers and architects, it can be difficult to convey just how groundbreaking it is. We believe Mist & Biml are such products.  Once you have the chance to use them, you'll never want to go back to the old way of building your data solutions.

This year at PASS Summit (October 2011, Seattle, WA), we're putting our money where our mouth is by sponsoring the $10,000 Biml Challenge during the exhibition.  

The contestant who solves a typical BI/DW task assigned in the competition the fastest will win $10,000 cash.  This task would normally require hours or longer with traditional approaches, but with Biml and Mist, the time limit will be a generous 15 minutes.