Discovering the Power BI ecosystem
While Power BI is often classified as a visualization tool, the reality is that Power BI is not a single tool but rather a collection of interrelated tools and services that form a complete business intelligence ecosystem. This ecosystem spans the entire business intelligence spectrum, from data to modeling, analysis, and visualization. In addition, this ecosystem includes components that are specific not only to Power BI itself but also to other Microsoft technologies that interoperate with Power BI, as well as third-party integrations. This interoperation with other Microsoft tools and technologies as well as third parties makes Power BI a formidable business intelligence platform, whose value far exceeds that of more siloed business intelligence tools in the market.
While the Power BI ecosystem is vast and complex, this ecosystem can be broken down into the following categories:
- Core and Power BI-specific
- Core and non-Power BI-specific
- Non-core and Power BI-specific
- Natively integrated Microsoft technologies
- Extended ecosystem
Core and Power BI-specific
Core and Power BI-specific technologies include the following:
- Power BI Desktop is a free Windows-based application that is installed on a local desktop or laptop computer. Power BI Desktop is the primary tool used to ingest, cleanse, and transform various sources of data, combine the data into models, and then analyze and visualize the data through the creation of calculations, visualizations, and reports. Once reports have been created in Power BI Desktop, these reports are often published to the Power BI service for sharing and collaboration.
- The Power BI service is a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) online platform. The Power BI service can be used for light report creation and editing, dashboard creation, as well as sharing, collaborating on, and viewing reports. Some data sources can be connected directly from the Power BI service, but the ability to model and analyze that data is limited.
Core and non-Power BI-specific
Core and non-Power BI-specific technologies include the following:
- Power Query is the Microsoft technology that provides data connectivity and transformation. This technology allows business users to access hundreds of different sources and transform the data as required. Data sources supported by Power Query include many different file types, databases, Microsoft Azure services, and third-party services. Power Query also provides a Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows for the creation of custom connectors so that third parties can create their own data connectors that seamlessly interoperate with Power Query. Power Query is used within Power BI Desktop, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio, and Microsoft Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service)
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Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) is a language that consists of a collection of functions, operators, and constants that can be used to write formulas,
or expressions, that return calculated values. Similar to Excel functions or MDX, DAX helps you create new information from data that’s already in your model.
- The data gateway is software that is installed to facilitate access from the Power BI service to on-premises data sources. The data gateway allows the Power BI service to refresh data from one or more data sources housed within on-premises systems. The data gateway comes in two modes – personal and enterprise. Personal mode can only be used with Power BI, while enterprise mode can be used with Power BI as well as Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, Azure Analysis Services, and other Azure logic apps.
- Analysis Services tabular modeling is an evolution of Microsoft’s multidimensional cubes. This technology is available outside of Power BI within Analysis Services but is also fundamental to Power BI. Models that are built within Power BI are actually built using SSAS Tabular, and Power BI Desktop runs a full instance of SSAS Tabular under the hood, so to speak. Thus, when building models in Power BI Desktop, you are actually building an Analysis Services tabular model.
- Microsoft AppSource, or simply AppSource, is a marketplace for finding apps, add-ons, and extensions to Microsoft software, including Office 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Cortana, and Power BI. Within Power BI, AppSource hosts custom visuals that can be downloaded and added to Power BI reports that have been authored within the desktop. These visuals are supported within the Power BI service as well.
Non-core and Power BI-specific
Non-core and Power BI-specific technologies include the following:
- Power BI Report Server is an on-premises technology that is a superset of SSRS. Similar in function to the Power BI service, Power BI Report Server allows Power BI reports authored in Power BI Desktop and Excel to be published and viewed while remaining fully on-premises. Because Power BI Report Server is a superset of SSRS, it can also host paginated reports (.rdl).
- Power BI Embedded is a system of REST APIs that can be used to display visualizations, reports, and dashboards within custom applications that serve customers that are external to an organization. Power BI Embedded is often used by Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and developers.
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Power BI mobile applications are native Android, iOS, and Windows applications that are downloadable from the respective platform stores, Google Play, the Apple App Store, and the Microsoft Store. Power BI mobile apps are touch-optimized
for viewing and interacting with Power BI reports that are published to the Power BI service.
- Power BI for mixed reality is based on the Power BI Windows mobile app but has additional capabilities that have been designed to work with Microsoft HoloLens. The HoloLens capabilities allow data to be projected holographically within the mixed-reality environment, and also have the ability to view and interact with reports and dashboards published within the Power BI service.
Natively integrated Microsoft technologies
Natively integrated Microsoft technologies include the following:
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Office 365 is Microsoft’s ubiquitous line of subscription services, which includes traditional Office applications, plus other productivity services that are enabled via the cloud (the internet). Central to Office 365 is the concept of a tenant, an
organization’s very own slice of Office 365. Power BI integrates natively with Office 365 so that when a user subscribes to Power BI, the email address is checked for existing Office 365 tenants, and if one exists, the Power BI user will be added to that tenant. If an Office 365 tenant does not exist, Power BI will provision a new Office 365 tenant, sometimes called a shadow tenant, and the Power BI user will be added to that tenant.
- Excel incorporates many underlying Power BI technologies as native add-ons. These include Analyze in Excel and Power Pivot, which provides access to Power Query, and the same underlying data model used by Power BI (Analysis Services tabular models). Excel is also a first-class citizen within the Power BI service and is called Workbooks within the Power BI service.
- Power BI is part of the Power Platform ecosystem, which includes Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power Virtual Agents. Power Automate is a workflow technology that has a native connector for Power BI that supports both triggers and actions. Triggers are based on the Power BI service’s data alerts, and actions support both streaming and non-streaming datasets in the service. In addition, there is a Power Automate visualization available in AppSource.
- Power Apps is a form-based technology from Microsoft that provides a native connector to Power BI, as well as a default visualization. In addition, Power BI tiles can be embedded into Power Apps applications. Finally, Power Apps uses Power Query technology as part of its data integration feature.
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Power Virtual Agents enables the creation and use of intelligent agents or bots that can perform tasks or have intelligent, contextual conversations with humans. Power Virtual Agents chatbots can be integrated into Power BI workspaces.
- The Microsoft desktop application Visio has a custom visual for Power BI that was built by Microsoft. This visual allows you to link data within Power BI to a Visio diagram as values or colors that are displayed within the Visio drawing.
- SharePoint provides the ability to embed Power BI reports within SharePoint via a native Power BI report web part.
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Dynamics 365 provides the ability to embed Power BI visuals natively within Dynamics 365 reports and dashboards. In addition, Power BI has native connectors for Dynamics. Finally, there are several apps available for Dynamics in the
Power BI service.
- Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service) is actually central to Power Automate, Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, Dynamics 365, and Power BI. Dataverse allows an organization to store and manage data from numerous business applications within a set of standard and custom entities. Entities allow an organization to create a business-focused definition of their data and use this data within apps. Power BI has a native connector for Dataverse.
- Azure Machine Learning technologies are becoming pervasive within Power BI. This includes the ability to create columns from an example within Power Query, as well as custom visualizations, such as the key influencers visual. In addition, dataflows in Premium capacities can leverage Automated Machine Learning and Cognitive Services.
- One of the native outputs from Azure Stream Analytics is Power BI. This allows you to stream data that is running through Azure Stream Analytics and display it on Power BI’s dashboard tiles.
- Report Builder is a venerable Microsoft tool for the creation of paginated reports (.rdl). These reports can be published to a Power BI Premium instance and displayed within the Power BI service.
The extended Power BI ecosystem
Microsoft has created numerous APIs and SDKs that enable the creation of custom visuals, data source connectors, and automation via PowerShell and other coding languages. As a result, there is a large extended ecosystem of third-party custom visuals, connectors, apps, and add-on products for Power BI. In addition, Power BI integrates with other non-Microsoft programming languages, such as Python, R, and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
The Power BI community is a large ecosystem of users focused on the education and use of Power BI within local communities. To find a Power BI user group in your area, go to https://www.pbiusergroup.com.
In addition to local user groups, there is a general community website that provides forums and galleries where Power BI users can get questions answered about using Power BI. To access this community website, go to https://community.powerbi.com.
As you can see, Power BI is part of a large ecosystem of tools and technologies that enables business intelligence as well as supporting the business processes that benefit from informed decisions. To get the most out of these tools and technologies, it is important to understand how Power BI is licensed.
