Describe Power BI
Power BI is a name that has been around for a while in the business intelligence sector. The Microsoft team has been putting a lot of effort into developing a powerful visualization, data analysis, and cloud-based application called Power BI.
Power BI is a Microsoft business analytics service, to put it simply.
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Along with a desktop-based interface named "Power BI Desktop," Power BI also provides cloud-based business intelligence (BI) services under the name "Power BI Services." It delivers data warehouse features including interactive dashboards, data discovery, and data preparation. Microsoft launched Power BI Embedded, extra service on its Azure cloud platform, in March 2016. This service enables users to quickly analyze data, carry out various ETL operations, and generate reports using Power BI.
With the help of Power BI gateways, you can integrate Power BI reports and dashboards into reporting portals and connect SQL Server databases, Analytical Services, and several other data sources to your dashboard in Power BI.
Requirements of Power BI
Power BI is one of the most well-known solutions for data visualization because of the following factors. Without comprehension of these concepts, this Power BI lesson would be lacking.
Real-time trend recognition: You are only able to conduct historical analysis using traditional BI tools like Tableau or Qlikview. You can access real-time data using Power BI, allowing you to see trends early on. You can pinpoint problems and enhance performance by doing this.
Automated discovery of hidden insights: With Quick Insights in Power BI, you can instantly auto-search data sets for hidden insights. Users only need to ask a query, and Power BI Q&A will immediately provide a response.
Individual visualizations: You can visualize data using Power BI's Custom visualizations in virtually any way you can think of. As a result, you are not constrained to what is in the box.
Enterprise-ready: You can safely connect to your own on-premises data sources with Power BI and Power BI Desktop. You can establish a live connection to your SQL Server and other data sources using the On-premises Data Gateway. It provides enterprise-grade information technology that is safe, scalable, and reliable.
Power BI components
The following are the components of Power BI:
Power Query: Search, access, and transformation of external and/or internal data sources are all possible with it.
Power Pivot: It is utilized in data modelling for in-memory analytics.
Power View: Power View can be used to analyze, visualize, and present data as an interactive data visualization.
Power Map: With interactive geographic visualization, it brings data to life.
Power BI Service: Data views and workbooks from on-premises and cloud-based data sources that can be refreshed can be shared.
Power BI Q&A: With a natural language query, you may ask inquiries and receive prompt responses.
Data Management Gateway: You can access data feeds, expose tables, and receive recurring data refreshers by using this component.
Data Catalog: Using a data catalogue, a user can quickly locate and reuse searches. Search functionality can be aided by metadata.
Data Catalog: Using a data catalogue, a user can quickly locate and reuse searches. Search functionality can be aided by metadata.
Architecture Of Power BI
The architecture of Power BI is depicted in the graphic below.
Three steps make up Power BI's architecture. ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) is used to manage the data in part during the first two stages. Let's look at each of these stages separately:
1. Data Integration
Dealing with data from several sources may be necessary for an organization. There are numerous file formats that the data from data sources might be in. The data is first extracted from a variety of sources, including databases and services you may use. This information is then combined in a standardized manner and kept in a shared place known as the staging area.
2.
Data Processing
Because processing is required before the data can be presented, the integrated data is still not ready for visualization. This data has been cleansed or pre-processed. For instance, redundant or missing values are eliminated from the data collection. Business rules are applied to the data once it has been cleansed, turning it into presentable data. The Data Warehouse is then filled with this data.
3.
Data Presentation
As a result, after the data has been loaded and processed, it can now be represented much more effectively by using the several visualizations that Power BI has to offer. One can depict data in a more understandable way by using reports and dashboards. These reports and graphics assist business end users in making decisions for their operations based on the data.
The origins of Power BI
- Thierry D'Hers and Amir Netz at Microsoft came up with the concept for the Power BI application first.
- Gemini was the initial project name.
- PowerPivot, a Microsoft Excel add-in, was introduced in 2009.
- It gradually gained popularity.
- Its original name was Project Crescent in 2010.
- The public might access it starting on July 11, 2011.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Power BI
Advantages:
- It is accessible for free and is open source.
- Can import data from connected datasets and native datasets
- It is frequently updated as a result of user suggestions.
- Data is accessible from everywhere because it is kept in a centralized location.
- It is user-friendly and simple to use because it provides interactive graphical visualization.
- Users may incorporate Power BI graphs, visualizations, and reports into emails and websites with Power BI Embedded.
- The possibility for users to upload and see data in excel is also available.
- Through personal gateways, it may integrate on-premise and other data sources.
- When switching to the cloud, there is no memory restriction.
Disadvantages:
- Power BI's necessary language, DAX, is not simple to use.
- Only data up to 10 MB can be handled by it.
- More than one interlinked table has a negative impact on Power BI's performance.
- Power BI's cluttered user interface makes it challenging to examine the information.
- Learning sophisticated Power BI features like Gateways, Power BI Report Server, and Power BI Services is challenging.
- It doesn't offer a feature for clearing up data.
- Limited data sharing is done.
- Visualization and report generation are manual processes that cannot be automated.
