Data has exploded!
We’ve seen exponential growth globally, and while data has always been key to making critical business decisions, businesses are under increased pressure to gain value from their data and ensure they are doing so safely and ethically. Since we have this wealth of data, we should be using it to maximum advantage.
“The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally reached around 64.2 zettabytes in 2020. Data creation is predicted to grow to 180 zettabytes by 2025.” Source
Why We Heart Power BI
For business growth, it’s so important that data can be utilised by technical and non-technical people alike – we are huge fans of Microsoft’s Power BI for this reason. Power BI makes it pretty easy for anyone handling data in your business to make confident decisions using up-to-the-minute analytics, and it helps that it looks good too!
For 15 consecutive years, Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms, making it the ideal solution for businesses looking to get the most out of their data.
Below we’ve summarised Power BI’s key features to help you decide which one will work best for you. If you’d prefer to talk through your requirements or get into the nitty-gritty of licensing, we also have a very friendly and knowledgeable expert in Quorum that you can get in touch with:
Robert French
BI Consultant
Power BI Free
Using Power BI Desktop, you can create reports by connecting to a wide variety of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, databases (SQL Server, Oracle, Hadoop, MySQL, to name a few), Dynamics CRM, and SharePoint.
Despite its simplicity, Power BI Desktop offers some excellent free features that would usually require a paid-for tool. In addition to extracting and converting data, users can easily explore their data and apply different charts (visualisations) using the simple interface.
You can then publish your reports to the Power BI Service, which can be viewed in any browser. You can even share your reports on the web. Power BI can provide a URL to a report that anyone can access. You should note that reports published this way are not secure.
Combined, Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service offer a wide range of pretty powerful functions, all of which are accessed for free, even if it has some drawbacks to sharing reports privately.
Using Power BI Desktop, you can create reports by connecting to a wide variety of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, databases (SQL Server, Oracle, Hadoop, MySQL, to name a few), Dynamics CRM, and SharePoint.
Despite its simplicity, Power BI Desktop offers some excellent free features that would usually require a paid-for tool. In addition to extracting and converting data, users can easily explore their data and apply different charts (visualisations) using the simple interface.
You can then publish your reports to the Power BI Service, which can be viewed in any browser. You can even share your reports on the web. Power BI can provide a URL to a report that anyone can access. You should note that reports published this way are not secure.
Combined, Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service offer a wide range of pretty powerful functions, all of which are accessed for free, even if it has some drawbacks to sharing reports privately.
Power BI Free
Power BI Pro
Power BI Pro provides everything you can find in Power BI Desktop for building dashboards and reports and unlimited viewing, sharing, and using reports or those shared by others. Pro connects to even more data sources and includes several additional features and functionality, including data security and encryption.
As a result of its integration with existing Microsoft 365 tools, Power BI Pro is the most popular service, allowing reports to be added to collaboration tools like Teams and SharePoint. However, any user who wishes to view the reports must have a Power BI Pro license. SMEs might want to investigate this option since Office 365 administrators can control Power BI licensing across an entire organisation.
This combination of Microsoft tools allows you to easily collaborate on things that look and feel familiar, visualise and get data insights quickly, access it online, and view it on your mobile device.
Power BI Pro
Power BI Pro provides everything you can find in Power BI Desktop for building dashboards and reports, sharing, and using reports or those shared by others. Pro connects to even more data sources and includes several additional features and functionality, including data security and encryption.
As a result of its integration with existing Microsoft 365 tools, Power BI Pro is the most popular licence, allowing reports to be added to collaboration tools like Teams and SharePoint. However, any user who wishes to view the reports must have a Power BI Pro license. SMEs might want to investigate this option since Office 365 administrators can control Power BI licensing across an entire organisation.
This combination of Microsoft tools allows you to easily collaborate on things that look and feel familiar, visualise and get data insights quickly, access it online, and view it on your mobile device.
Power BI Premium
Power BI Premium is more geared towards enterprise-scale deployments and workloads. It, therefore, comes with a vast array of features and functionality, allowing you to unify self-service and enterprise BI. Power BI Premium is a dedicated Azure service.
The most essential feature is that reports uploaded to Power BI Premium services can be shared with anybody and can be seen without requiring a Power BI Pro licence. To publish reports to the Power BI service, at least one employee in the organisation must have a Power BI Pro licence.
As the service is leased, it is managed entirely by the leasing organisation, allowing specific resources, such as compute resource, to be allocated to specific workspaces as needed. Therefore, Power BI Premium offers you greater operational control.
Power BI Premium is more geared towards enterprise-scale deployments and workloads. It, therefore, comes with a vast array of features and functionality, allowing you to unify self-service and enterprise BI. Power BI Premium is a dedicated Azure service.
The most essential feature is that reports uploaded to Power BI Premium services can be shared with anybody and can be seen without requiring a Power BI Pro licence. To publish reports to the Power BI service, at least one employee in the organisation must have a Power BI Pro licence.
As the service is leased, it is managed entirely by the leasing organisation, allowing specific resources, such as compute resource, to be allocated to specific workspaces as needed. Therefore, Power BI Premium offers you greater operational control.
Power BI Premium
Microsoft Power BI Embedded (PBIE)
As a Microsoft Azure service, Power BI Embedded enables companies to integrate Power BI’s analytical capabilities into their own applications, allowing them to create meaningful reports and analyse data using web pages, portals and custom applications.
In contrast to Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium, Power BI Embedded does not offer a specific environment for accessing corporate reports as it does with external APIs. Developers can integrate reports into their applications or even program functionality in Power BI to enable Power BI Embedded.
Benefits of Power BI Embedded:
- Users can share Power BI content internally and externally, requiring no additional licenses. Note users must be authenticated by the application if using an A-SKU.
- Define and manage the user experience based on the audiences, such as companies and users.
- Row-level security (RLS) ensures that data is appropriately filtered based on user identity.
- It offers end-users a stable experience that doesn’t require monthly training or changes.
Power BI Embedded helps integrate dashboards into specific applications or programming environments. However, it does not help access and control all of your organisation’s reports or dashboards, track business performance, or implement data governance.
Power BI Embedded (PBIE)
As a Microsoft Azure service, Power BI Embedded enables companies to integrate Power BI’s analytical capabilities into their own applications, allowing them to create meaningful reports and analyse data using web pages, portals and custom applications.
In contrast to Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium, Power BI Embedded does not offer a specific environment for accessing corporate reports as it does with external APIs. Developers can integrate reports into their applications or even program functionality in Power BI to enable Power BI Embedded.
Benefits of Power BI Embedded:
- Users can share Power BI content internally and externally, requiring no additional licenses. Note users must be authenticated by the application if using an A-SKU.
- Define and manage the user experience based on the audiences, such as companies and users.
- Row-level security (RLS) ensures that data is appropriately filtered based on user identity.
- It offers end-users a stable experience that doesn’t require monthly training or changes.
Power BI Embedded helps integrate dashboards into specific applications or programming environments. However, it does not help access and control all of your organisation’s reports or dashboards, track business performance, or implement data governance.
Data and analytics can be driven forward using Power BI, which is a fantastic tool to get you started and help you advance, even with large amounts of data. What we have mentioned is only a small part of what can be achieved with Power BI.
As a Microsoft Gold Partner for Data Platform and Analytics, our consultants have the experience to help your organisation get the most out of your data.
We provide everything from planning and designing your business requirements to training your users and supporting your BI solution.
Let’s talk about what you’d like to accomplish with your data.
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Quorum Network Resources Ltd
18 Greenside Lane Edinburgh
UK EH1 3AH
Phone: +44 131 652 3954
Email: marketing@quorum.co.uk
CONTACT INFO
Quorum Network Resources Ltd
18 Greenside Lane Edinburgh
UK EH1 3AH
Phone: +44 131 652 3954
Email: marketing@quorum.co.uk
FOLLOW US
AWARDS & RECOGNITION