Power BI Service

1. Overview of Power BI Service

In Power BI, Power BI Service is the cloud component with hosting, sharing, and collaboration capabilities. It is used to publish reports and dashboards from Power BI Desktop and allows accessibility to stakeholders through web browser or mobile app.

Key Features of Power BI Service:

Cloud-based accessibility for reports and dashboards from anywhere.
Automatic Data refresh and scheduled updates of datasets to keep reports current.
Collaboration & sharing of reports securely within an organization or externally.
AI-Powered Insights: Get automated insights and anomaly detection.
Enterprise-level security with Azure Active Directory integration.
Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem like Excel, Azure, Dynamics 365, and other Microsoft products.

2. Workspaces, Apps, and Reports

In Power BI Service, Workspaces act as collaborative environments in which users can create, manage, and share Power BI content.

Types of Workspace:

My Workspace: Personal space to report development and storage for individuals.
Shared Workspaces: to collaborate, develop, and publish reports for teams.

Apps in Power BI Service

Apps are collections of dashboards and reports that are packed and shared with users. It is suitable for distributing them in a structured manner. To access the latest reports, Users can install Apps and make use of them.

Reports in Power BI Service

Report is a collection of visualizations which can be customized using Power BI’s features and built on a dataset.

The Power BI’s features include:

Filters and Slicers
Drill-Through and Drill-Down
Bookmarks for Personalized Views

3. Sharing and Collaboration

The different ways to share reports in Power BI Service are:

Direct Sharing
Public sharing
Embedding reports
Power BI Apps

Direct sharing involves report sharing using email or Power BI Service with specific users. Public Sharing is publishing to the web by generating a public URL to share with external users.

Embedding Reports involves Embedding Power BI reports in SharePoint, Teams, or websites. Power BI Apps achieves streamlined user experience by publishing reports as an app.

Collaboration Features in Power BI Service:

Co-Authoring & Editing in a shared workspace where multiple users can work.
Commenting & Annotations feature allows Users to add comments and tag team members.
Row-Level Security (RLS) is available to Control data access based on user roles.
Alerts & Notifications are provided when data changes meet specific conditions.

4. Data Gateway Setup for On-Premise Data Sources

Power BI Data Gateway can be used to connect the Power BI service with on-premise databases like SQL Server, Oracle, or SAP.

Types of Power BI Data Gateways:

Personal Mode Gateway: supports power bi to run applications on a local machine which is best suited for individual use.
Standard (Enterprise) Gateway: is used for enterprise use which allows multiple users to connect to on-premise data. It supports Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate.

Steps to Set Up a Power BI Data Gateway:

Download and Install it from Microsoft’s official site.
Use your Power BI account to register the gateway.
Choose the Mode among Personal Mode and Enterprise Mode based on needs.
Link the data source like SQL Server, Oracle, or other on-premise databases.
Set up automatic data refresh to keep reports updated.

Benefits of Using Power BI Data Gateway:

Power BI gateway is useful for secure data transmission between on-premise and cloud.
It enables real-time, scheduled refresh for on-premise data and supports various Microsoft services.

Request more information

Power BI Service