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Microsoft Power BI#

Microsoft Power BI is a visualization tool that provides the capability to connect data from different structured, or non-structured, data sources and create a diverse range of visualizations in an interactive way.

Microsoft has also been identified as a Leader for the thirteenth consecutive year in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligent Platforms. For more info, visit the Microsoft Power BI website.

Interfaces#

Configurations#

Consumption models#

Unlike other Dataplatform resources, Microsoft Power BI does not have an infrastructure component in our Azure environment.

Power BI can be provided to the users in three versions: Power BI Desktop, Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium.

The Power BI Desktop is an application that can be installed on your Desktop or Workspace, and allows you to connect to data sources and create visualizations in the form of dashboards or reports.

With a Power BI Pro license, you can publish dashboards and reports to an online service. This allows you to view these published dashboards and reports from a web browser or mobile application, and share these with other Power BI Pro users.

The Power BI Premium & Embedded versions allows you to have a dedicated server, which syncs with the data sources and allows to publish reports and dashboards to users without a Power BI Pro license.

Data connectors#

In order to use the visualization capabilities of Power BI, we need to load or connect data that we want to gain insights from. Microsoft Power BI offers more than 120+ out-of-the-box connectors to connect to your on-premise or cloud data. Example include: Dynamics, SharePoint online, SAP HANA, etc. For a full list of connectors, visit the Microsoft Power BI documentation on data sources.

Our user manual describes in detail how you can connect your Power BI to the data in your Dataplatform resources. To connect to other non-Dataplatform resources, please consult the Microsoft Power BI documentation.