Power BI V2.0:Is It Any Good?

Chris Webbchris@crossjoin.co.uk

@Technitrain

Who Am I?

• Chris Webb• chris@crossjoin.co.uk• Twitter @Technitrain

• UK-based consultant and trainer: • www.crossjoin.co.uk • www.technitrain.com

• Author of several books: • MDX Solutions• Expert Cube Development with SSAS 2008• Analysis Services 2012: The BISM Tabular Model• Power Query for Power BI and Excel

• SQL Server MVP• Blogger: http://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/

Agenda

• Power BI V1.0 – why did it fail?• Power BI V2.0 – what has changed?• How to buy Power BI V.20• Power BI V2.0 – the future!• Use case: self-service BI on the desktop/in the cloud• Use case: publishing reports to an on-premises server• Use case: analysis of data from 3rd party services• Use case: API-level integration• Use case: SSAS Tabular desktop client tool• Use case: live reporting on Big Data

Power BI V1.0 – why did it fail?

•Power BI V1.0 was based around:• Excel as the desktop BI tool of choice• Office 365 and SharePoint Online as the means of

publishing reports•A great idea in theory… a big problem in practice

Power BI V1.0 – why did it fail?

• It failed for a number of reasons:• Customers had the wrong version/edition/bitness of Excel• Customers didn’t have Office 365• Power BI + Office 365 subscription was expensive• Customers didn’t like putting data in the cloud• Limited dashboarding/visualisation capabilities• Confusing number of names/components• Competing tools were better!

Power BI V1.0 – did it actually fail?

•As an end-to-end service, Power BI did fail•But the Excel components are still very successful

individually• There is integration between Excel, SharePoint Online,

OneDrive For Business and Power BI V2.0

Power BI V1.0 – did it actually fail?

• The Office BI story is continuing in parallel still:• Some improvements in Power Pivot in Excel 2016• Power Query is native to Excel 2016• New chart types and other BI features in Excel 2016• Power View is still rubbish and Silverlight in Excel 2016 •Who knows what the SharePoint BI v.next story will be…?

•Rebranding means that the “Power” brand has gone• Power Query is “Get & Transform”• Power Map is “3D Maps”

Power BI V2.0 – what’s changed?

•Power BI V2.0 consists of:• Power BI Desktop• PowerBI.com cloud-based reporting and dashboards

•Power BI Desktop is: Power Query + Power Pivot + Power View – Excel• You can use Power BI Desktop in two ways:• As a standalone BI tool in itself• To build reports for publishing to PowerBI.com

Power BI-Excel integration in the future• Already you can import a data model created in Power Pivot from

Excel 2013 to Power BI Desktop• You can’t go the other way… yet?

• Excel 2016 will allow you to publish direct to PowerBI.com• Excel worksheets are visible in PowerBI.com• Common request is for Power BI data models to be available as a data

source for Excel• On the desktop• In the cloud

SQL Server 2016 BI

• SQL Server 2016 BI will be getting more love than it has in recent releases• Microsoft seems to understand that on-premises/corporate BI can’t

be replaced by cloud/self-service BI• Expect to see some Power BI integration though:• SSRS reports available in Power BI dashboards• What are the plans for Datazen?• Power Query-SSAS/SSIS/SSRS integration has been delayed

• Also expect to see integration of R into Power BI and SQL Server 2016

How to buy Power BI V2.0

•Power BI Desktop is FREE•PowerBI.com is a two-tier service• Free subscription is meant for personal reporting• $9.99/month gives you a Professional subscription

How to buy Power BI V2.0

•Advantages of Professional over Free:• Greater data volumes•More frequent data refresh• ‘Live’ querying• Data refresh against on-premises data sources• Sharing and collaboration

How to buy Power BI V2.0

•Other Power BI subscription levels may appear•Power BI will also be available as part of other

bundles:• New Office 365 E5 subscription SKU• As part of Cortana Analytics Suite, along with many other

Azure BI services

Power BI V2.0 – the future!

•Power BI is getting a massive amount of investment from MS•RTM is meaningless from a tech point of view – the

rate of change will be the same for the foreseeable future•Monthly releases of Power BI Desktop•More frequent updates of PowerBI.com

Power BI V2.0 – the future!

• If Power BI doesn’t do it now, it may do soon•Mark As Date table a notable missing feature• Power Map integration…?

•Also integration with new services like Azure Data Catalog and others TBA• I have confidence in the current management to do

the Right Thing

Use cases

• BI means different things to different people• Power BI addresses different BI needs from the SQL Server BI stack• It is not a replacement for SQL Server/SSIS/SSAS/SSRS• It may never be one• Why should it be?

• It is more of a competitor to Tableau and Qlik, but even then it is focussing on niches that these tools don’t cover• Whether Power BI is ‘good’ or a ‘success’ will depend on how well it

can compete in the use cases that MS is investing in

Use case: self-service BI on the desktop• The price is unbeatable!• Is it better than Excel + Power add-ins?• Is it pretty?• Visualisations are now a lot better with RTM release• D3 integration should settle this question once and for all

• The UI is still a work in progress• The underlying technology was never the problem• Integration of Power Query and Power Pivot components is confusing

Use case: self-service BI in the cloud

• Publishing to PowerBI.com is one click• You can also create new reports in the browser• Almost complete feature parity between desktop and cloud• The aim is complete feature parity

• Connection back to on-prem data sources via Personal Gateway• Do you want to store your data in the cloud…?• Not feasible yet to share data outside your organisation, yet this is

probably the main reason why you would want cloud BI

Use case: publishing reports on-premises• MS recently announced an alliance with Pyramid Analytics, a long-

establish SSAS client tool vendor• Not an acquisition!

• Power BI Desktop will be able to publish reports to an on-premises Pyramid Analytics server• You will have to pay separately for your Pyramid licence• Will other vendors get similar treatment?

Use case: 3rd party services

• Power BI content packs are available for a number of 3rd party online services like Mailchimp, GitHub, Google Analytics• Provide two things:• Ability to import data from these services into Power BI• A number of pre-created reports that can be edited or added to

• No public documentation on how to do this for external data sources yet, but will come soon• Organisational content packs are available now

• Presumably some kind of store will be available to download/buy these content packs…?

Use case: API-level integration

• Power BI is a platform with an ever-growing API• At the moment the API is basic but useable:• Create/delete datasets• Pump data into datasets• Automatically delete old data

• This will allow for much deeper integration than content packs will allow: data is pushed in, rather than pulled• Will soon be able to embed Power BI in your own site as well as skin it

Use case: SSAS Tabular desktop client tool• For traditional corporate BI customers, you can use Power BI Desktop

as a client tool for SSAS Tabular• Multidimensional support coming soon

• Data is not cached inside the model – queries pass through to SSAS Tabular (on desktop and in the cloud)• Not a replacement for Excel, more of a companion• Great for demos though

• Not a direct competitor for 3rd party client tools• “Super-DAX” in SSAS 2016 could give a performance advantage

Use case: live reporting on Big Data

• As well as SSAS Tabular, other ‘live’ connections are also available• Azure SQL Database• Azure SQL Data Warehouse• Spark on HDInsight

• Useful for scenarios where• Your data is already in the cloud• Your data is too large to fit in a Power BI model

• Downside: many modelling capabilities not available yet• Will all Power BI functionality be available in this mode?• What will performance really be like?

Summary

• At RTM, Power BI V2.0 is good enough to be a successful product• Its price and capabilities make it competitive• It is improving incredibly quickly• Is it aimed at SQL Server BI customers? Not really, though it is getting

more attractive• Self service is aimed more at SMBs, Microsoft’s traditional sweet spot• 3rd party vendors will also recruit their customers• Also targeting ‘big data’ users who don’t have any other way to

analyse their data