Power Pivot for Excel Release

Released as a free add-in for Excel 2010, Power Pivot introduced the VertiPaq in-memory analytical engine, allowing users to handle millions of rows of data within Excel, create sophisticated data models, and perform complex calculations using DAX.

Significance

This marked the true beginning of Microsoft's self-service BI push, bringing enterprise-grade data modeling capabilities directly to Excel users, fundamentally changing what was possible within a spreadsheet.