Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment Whitepaper Summary: This is a technical whitepaper outlining considerations for a well-performing and secure organizational Power BI deployment. Writers: Chris Webb (Crossjoin Consulting), Melissa Coates (SentryOne) Technical Reviewers: Meagan Longoria (BlueGranite), Adam Wilson, Sirui Sun, Ajay Anandan, Riccardo Muti, Kasper de Jonge, Sergei Gundorov, Jacob Grimm, Dimah Zaidalkilani, Eyal Carmel, Adam Saxton, Kim Manis, Tzvi Keisar, Lukasz Pawlowski Published: June 2017 Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment Page 1 of 105 As of: June 2017 Contents Section 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Purpose of this Whitepaper .................................................................................................................................... 7 Scope of This Whitepaper ....................................................................................................................................... 7 High Level Overview of Power BI.......................................................................................................................... 7 Section 2. Deployment Options and Recommendations ................................................................................. 9 Scenarios for Power BI .............................................................................................................................................. 9 Key Decision Points................................................................................................................................................. 10 Who is Going to Consume the Reports? ........................................................................................................ 11 Where Do Consumers Want to View Reports? ............................................................................................ 12 How Is Power BI Being Utilized? ........................................................................................................................ 13 Usage Scenario: Self-Service BI - Teams and Small Groups ............................................................... 13 Usage Scenario: Self-Service BI - Personal ................................................................................................ 14 Usage Scenario: Organizational Reporting ............................................................................................... 15 Usage Scenario: Prototyping Activities ....................................................................................................... 17 Usage Scenario: Operational Reporting / Embedded Analytics ........................................................ 18 Usage Scenario: Streaming / Near-Real-Time Reporting .................................................................... 19 Is an On-Premises (Non-Cloud-Based) Solution Required? .................................................................... 19 Section 3. Licensing Options .................................................................................................................................... 20 Power BI Free ............................................................................................................................................................ 21 Power BI Pro .............................................................................................................................................................. 22 Power BI Premium ................................................................................................................................................... 23 Premium Capacity ............................................................................................................................................... 24 Power BI Report Server ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Comparison of Power BI Service vs. Power BI Report Server vs. SQL Server Reporting Services ................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Power BI Embedded ........................................................................................................................................... 28 Comparison of Features Available Per Tier .................................................................................................... 29 Section 4. Source Data Considerations ................................................................................................................ 30 Taking an Inventory of Data Sources .......................................................................................................... 31 Data Source Limitations.................................................................................................................................... 31 Cleansing, Filtering, Transforming and Integrating Data ..................................................................... 35 Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment Page 2 of 105 As of: June 2017 Section 5. Power BI Data Storage Options ......................................................................................................... 37 Data Storage Modes .............................................................................................................................................. 37 Option 1. Importing Data................................................................................................................................. 37 Option 2. Live Connections to SQL Server Analysis Services.............................................................. 38 Option 3. DirectQuery Mode .......................................................................................................................... 39 Option 4. Real-Time Streaming Datasets ................................................................................................... 40 Choosing a Storage Mode ................................................................................................................................... 42 Question 1. Is Analysis Services Already in Use? ..................................................................................... 42 Question 2. How Much Data is Needed by the Report? ...................................................................... 44 Question 3. How Frequently does Data Need to be Refreshed? ...................................................... 45 Question 4. How Complex is the Dataset? Are any Complex Calculations Necessary? ........... 46 Question 5. How Many Concurrent Users Need to be Supported?................................................. 47 Question 6. Are there Legal or Regulatory Reasons for Storing Data in a Specific Location? ................................................................................................................................................................................... 48 Question 7. What Technical Skills are Present In-House? ................................................................... 48 Question 8. What Budgetary Constraints Need to be Considered? ................................................ 49 Summary of Data Storage Recommendations ............................................................................................. 50 Section 6. Data Refresh and the On-Premises Data Gateway ..................................................................... 51 Types of Data, File, and Cache Refresh in Power BI ................................................................................... 52 Dataset Refresh .................................................................................................................................................... 52 Package Refresh (File Level) ............................................................................................................................ 52 Cached Tile Refresh ............................................................................................................................................ 52 Cached Visual Container Refresh .................................................................................................................. 53 Introduction to the On-Premises Data Gateway ......................................................................................... 53 Gateway Terminology ....................................................................................................................................... 54 Mode 1: On-Premises Data Gateway .......................................................................................................... 55 Mode 2: Personal mode ................................................................................................................................... 56 Summary of Features Per Mode .................................................................................................................... 57 When a Gateway is Required .......................................................................................................................... 58 Process for Using the On-premises data gateway ................................................................................. 58 Current On-premises data gateway Limitations ....................................................................................