Introduction to Power Pivot - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 44

Understanding the Power Pivot
Internal Data Model
At its core, Power Pivot is essentially an SQL Server Analysis Services engine made available through
an in-memory process that runs directly within Excel. The technical name for this engine is the xVe-
locity analytics engine. However, in Excel, it's referred to as the internal Data Model. You can leverage
the internal Data Model in Excel 2013 to create PivotTables that analyze data from multiple data
sources (which you can find out about in Chapter 2).
The internal Data Model can contain unlimited rows and columns of data. The only real limitation is
the 2GB maximum file size for a workbook and available memory. But you probably won't reach that
limit, because Power Pivot's compression algorithm is typically able to shrink imported data to about
one-tenth of its original size. This means a 100MB text file would only take up approximately 10MB in
the internal Data Model.
Every Excel 2013 workbook contains an internal Data Model; a single instance of the Power Pivot in-
memory engine. In Chapter 2, you interacted with the internal Data Model in a limited capacity
through the Data tab on the Ribbon. However, the most effective way to interact with the internal
Data Model is to use the Power Pivot Ribbon interface, which becomes available once you activate
the Power Pivot Add-In.
The Power Pivot Add-In doesn't install with every edition of Office 2013. If you have the Office Home
Edition, you won't able to activate the Power Pivot Add-In, thus you will not have access to the Power
Pivot Ribbon interface.
As of this writing, the Power Pivot Add-In is only available if you have one of the following editions of
Office or Excel:
Office 2013 Professional Plus: Available through volume licensing only
Office 365 ProPlus: Available with an ongoing subscription to Office365.com
Excel 2013 Stand-alone Edition: Available for purchase through any retailer
If you see the Power Pivot Add-In tab on the Ribbon (see the upcoming Figure 3-1), you don't have to
do anything! The Power Pivot Add-In is already activated.
If you still need to activate the Power Pivot Add-In, follow these steps:
1. Choose File ➜ Options.
2. Choose the Add-Ins option on the left.
3. Select COM Add-Ins from the Manage drop-down list and then click Go.
4. Select the Microsoft Office Power Pivot for Excel 2013 in the list of available COM Add-Ins.
Click OK.