Pro Power BI Architecture

This book provides detailed guidance around architecting and deploying Power BI reporting solutions, including help and best practices for sharing and security. You’ll find chapters on dataflows, shared datasets, composite model and DirectQuery connections to Power BI datasets, deployment pipelines, XMLA endpoints, and many other important features related to the overall Power BI architecture that are new since the first edition.

You will gain an understanding of what functionality each of the Power BI components provide (such as Dataflow, Shared Dataset, Datamart, thin reports, and paginated reports), so that you can make an informed decision about what components to use in your solution. You will get to know the pros and cons of each component, and how they all work together within the larger Power BI architecture.

Commonly encountered problems you will learn to handle include content unexpectedly changing while users are in the process of creating reports and building analyses, methods of sharing analyses that don’t cover all the requirements of your business or organization, and inconsistent security models. Detailed examples help you to understand and choose from among the different methods available for sharing and securing Power BI content so that only intended recipients can see it.

The knowledge provided in this book will allow you to choose an architecture and deployment model that suits the needs of your organization. It will also help ensure that you do not spend your time maintaining your solution, but on using it for its intended purpose: gaining business value from mining and analyzing your organization’s data.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* Architect Power BI solutions that are reliable and easy to maintain
* Create development templates and structures in support of reusability
* Set up and configure the Power BI gateway as a bridge between on-premises data sources and the Power BI cloud service
* Select a suitable connection type—Live Connection, DirectQuery, Scheduled Refresh, or Composite Model—for your use case
* Choose the right sharing method for how you are using Power BI in your organization
* Create and manage environments for development, testing, and production
* Secure your data using row-level and object-level security
* Save money by choosing the right licensing plan

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

Data analysts and developers who are building reporting solutions around Power BI, as well as architects and managers who are responsible for the big picture of how Power BI meshes with an organization’s other systems, including database and data warehouse systems.

REZA RAD is a Microsoft Regional Director, an Author, Trainer, Speaker, and Consultant. He has a BSc in Computer engineering and has more than 20 years of experience in data analysis, BI, databases, programming, and development mostly on Microsoft technologies. He has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 12 continuous years (from 2011-present) for his dedication to Microsoft BI. Reza is an active blogger and co-founder of RADACAD. Reza is also co-founder and co-organizer of the Difinity conference in New Zealand, the Power BI Summit (the biggest Power BI conference), and Data Insight Summit (Chicago, USA).

His articles on different aspects of technologies, especially on BI, can be found on his blog, which you can find at radacad-dot-com/blog.

He has written books on Microsoft BI and also is currently writing others. He has also been an active member on online technical forums such as MSDN and Experts-Exchange, and was a moderator of MSDN SQL Server forums, and is an MCP, MCSE, and MCITP of BI. He is the leader of the New Zealand Business Intelligence users group. He is also the author of very popular book Power BI from Rookie to Rock Star, which is free with more than 1700 pages of content.

He is an International Speaker in Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Business Applications Summit, Data Insight Summit, PASS Summit, SQL Saturday and user groups. And He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

Introduction

PART I. GETTING STARTED

1. Power BI Ecosystem and Components

2. Tools and Preparation

PART II. DEVELOPMENT

3. Import Data or Schedule Refresh

4. DirectQuery

5. Live Connection

6. Composite Mode

7. Choosing the Right Connection Type

8. Dataflows

9. Shared Datasets

10. Multi-Developer Architecture

11. Hybrid Architecture using other Microsoft Services

12. DirectQuery to Power BI Dataset

13. Dataflow Development Architecture

14. Analyze in Excel

15. Development Tools

16. Power BI Helper for Developers

17. Dataset Types

18. Realtime Power BI Solution

19. Paginated Reports

20. Power BI Templates

21. Power BI Desktop Development Templates

22. Incremental Refresh

23. Big Data Considerations, Hybrid Tables, and Performance

PART III. DEPLOYMENT24. Power BI Service Content

25. Power BI Report Server

26. Gateway

27. Power BI Licensing Guide

28. Power BI Premium

29. Premium Per User

30. Premium Settings and Configuration

31. Tenant Settings

32. Administrator Reports and Metrics

33. Workspace Structure and Architecture

34. Workspace Rules

35. Deployment Pipeines

36. REST API for Deployment and Architecture

37. Power BI Helper for Deployment and Administration

38. XMLA Endpoint

PART IV. SHARING AND SECURITY

39. Governance

40. Dashboard and Report Sharing

41. Workspaces as Collaborative Environments

42. Power BI Apps

43. Embed Code and Publish to Web

44. Embed in SharePoint Online

45. Microsoft Teams Integration

46. Power BI Embedded

47. SharePoint Online Integration

48. Microsoft Office

49. Comparing Power BI Sharing Methods

50. Usage Metrics Reports

51. Usage Metrics using REST API

52. Usage Metrics using Power BI Helper

53. Row Level Security

54. Dynamic Row Level Security

55. Object-Level Security