Power BI Architecture

Sara Kutty
Assistant Professor
St Joseph’s University
Power BI Architecture
Components of Power BI Architecture
1. Data Sources
• vast range of data sources.
• You can import data from files in your system, cloud-based online data sources or
connect directly to live connections.
• If you import from data on-premise or online services there is a limit of 1 GB.
• Some commonly used data sources in Power BI are:
• Excel
• Teradata Database
• Text/CSV • SAP HANA Database
• XML • SAP Business Warehouse server
• JSON • Amazon Redshift
• Oracle Database • Impala
• IBM DB2 Database • Google BigQuery (Beta)
• MySQL Database • Azure SQL Database
• Salesforce Reports
• PostgreSQL Database
• Google Analytics
• Sybase Database • Facebook
• GitHub
Components of Power BI Architecture
2. Power BI Desktop
• Power BI Desktop is a client-side tool known as a
companion development and authoring tool.
• This desktop-based software is loaded with tools
and functionalities to connect to data sources,
transform data, data modeling and creating
reports.
• You can download and install Power BI Desktop in
your system for free.
• Using Power BI Desktop features, one can do
• data cleansing,
• create business metrics and data models,
• define the relationship between data,
• define hierarchies,
• create visuals and
• publish reports.
Components of Power BI Architecture
3. Power BI Service
• a web-based platform from where you can share
reports made on Power BI Desktop, collaborate
with other users, and create dashboards.
• It is available in three versions:
• Free version
• Pro version
• Premium version
• Power BI Service is also known as, “Power
BI.com”, “Power BI Workspace”, “Power BI
Site” and “Power BI Web Portal”.
• This component also offers advanced features
like natural language Q&A and alerts.
Components of Power BI Architecture
4. Power BI Report Server
• The Power BI Report Server is similar to the
Power BI Service. The only difference between
these two is that Power BI Report Server is an
on-premise platform.
• It is used by organizations who do not want to
publish their reports on the cloud and are
concerned about the security of their data.
• Power BI Report Server enables you to create
dashboards and share your reports with other
users following proper security protocols.
• To use this service, you need to have a Power BI
Premium license.
Components of Power BI Architecture
5. Power BI Gateway
• This component is used to connect and
access on-premise data in secured networks.
• Power BI Gateways are generally used in
organizations where data is kept in security
and watch.
• Gateways help to extract out such data
through secure channels to Power BI
platforms for analysis and reporting.
Components of Power BI Architecture
6. Power BI Mobile
• Power BI Mobile is a native Power BI
application that runs on iOS, Android, and
Windows mobile devices.
• For viewing reports and dashboards, these
applications are used.
7. Power BI Embedded
• Power BI Embedded offers APIs which are
used to embed visuals into custom
applications.
Power BI Gateway acts as a
secure channel to transport data
from on-premise data sources to
on-cloud apps or sites.
Power BI Service
• all the reports that you create in
Power BI Desktop are published on
a cloud platform known as Power
BI Service.
• Users can access the reports and
dashboards from Power BI Service
using client platforms like websites,
mobile devices, etc.
• This means that every client who
wants to access content created on
Power BI needs to interact with
Power BI Service.
Power BI Service’s Architecture
• Power BI Service’s architecture consists of two parts:
• A front end
• A back end
Power BI Service’s Architecture
• Front End cluster
• The front end also called the web front-end
cluster acts as an intermediary between
clients and the back end.
• The front end services are used for establishing
an initial connection and authenticating clients
using Azure Active Directory.
• The Azure Active Directory stores user identities.
• Along with this, Azure Traffic Manager is used
to direct user requests to the nearest data
center after authentication.
• Once a client/user is authenticated, the Azure
Content Delivery Network (CDN) distributes
static Power BI content/files to users.
Power BI Service’s Architecture
• Back End Cluster
• The Power BI services at the back
end take care of visualizations,
datasets, storage, reports, data
connections, data refreshing, and
other interactions with Power BI.
• At the back-end, a web client has
only two direct points of
interaction, Azure API
Management, and Gateway Role.
• These two components are
responsible for load balancing,
authentication, authorization,
routing, etc.
Power BI Service’s Architecture
• Working of Power BI Service
• Power BI stores its data in two main repositories;
• Azure block storage
• stores the datasets uploaded by users
• Azure SQL database.
• all the metadata and system-related data is stored in the Azure SQL database.
• After Azure API Management authenticates a user request, it is sent to the Gateway Role.
• The Gateway Role processes the requests and directs them to suitable components like Presentation
Role, Background Job Processing Role, Data Role, and Data Movement Role.
• For instance, the Presentation Role handles all the visualization related queries like for dashboards and reports.
• For all the data related queries, the request is sent by the Gateway Role to the Data Role or Data Movement
Role.
• Power BI Service back end uses Azure Service Bus to connect on-premise datasources with
the cloud. Azure Service Bus receives all the requests to fetch data from the on-premise
data source. Then it processes the request and executes the query on the on-premise data
source to retrieve data from it to the cloud service.
• The Azure Service Fabric manages all the microservices and components associated with
running Power BI.
• Azure AD Cache helps in real-time reporting using the data stored in the in-memory of the
Power BI system.
 Power BI Advantages
• Secure Report Publishing: You can automate setup data
refresh and publish reports that allowing all the users to avail
the latest information.
• No Memory and Speed Constraints: To Shift an existing BI
system into a powerful cloud environment with Power BI
embedded eliminates memory. Speed constraints ensure that
data is quickly retrievable and analyzed.
• No Specialized Technical Support required: The Power BI
provides quick inquiry and analysis without the need for
specialized technical support. It also supports a powerful
natural language interface and the use of intuitive graphical
designer tools.
• Simple to Use: Power BI is simple to use. Users can easily find
it only on behalf of a short learning curve.
• Constant innovation: The Power BI product is updated in every
month with new functions and features.
• Rich, personalized dashboard: The crowning feature of Power
BI is the information dashboards that can be customized to
meet the exact need of any enterprise. You can easily embed
the dashboards, and BI reports in the applications to provide a
unified user experience.
Power BI Disadvantages
• Dashboards and reports are only shared with the users who are having the
same email domains.
• Power BI will not merge imported data that is accessed from real-time
connections.
• Power BI only accepts the file size maximum 250 Mb and the zip file which
is compressed by the data of the x-velocity in-memory database.
• Dashboard never accepts or pass user, account, or any other entity
parameters.
• Very few data sources permit real-time connections to Power BI reports
and dashboards.
Power BI Components
 Power BI Components
• Power BI Query
• Power Query is an ETL tool created by Microsoft for data extraction, loading and
transformation, and is used to retrieve data from sources, process it, and load them into one
or more target systems.
• Power BI Pivot
• Power Pivot provides Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) for creating custom calculations in
Power Pivot tables and in Excel PivotTables.
• DAX includes some of the functions that are used in Excel formulas, and additional functions
that are designed to work with relational data and perform dynamic aggregation.
• Power BI View
• Power View is a data visualization technology that lets you create interactive charts, graphs,
maps, and other visuals that bring your data to life.
• Power BI Map
• With Power Map, you can plot geographic and temporal data on a 3-D globe or custom map,
show it over time, and create visual tours you can share with other people.
• Power BI Q&A
• allows you to create visuals using Power BI's natural language processing engine to interpret
your question and get an answer from your data. This feature lets you ask a question about
your data in plain English and have Power BI build the visual to answer your question for you.
Questions
• Explain the different Components of Power BI Architecture
• Explain the Working of Power BI Architecture with a new diagaram
• Explain Power BI Service Architecture
• List the Advantages of Power BI
• List the Disadvantages of Power BI
• List any four commonly used data sources in Power BI
• Name the repositories Power BI uses to store its data
References
• https://data-flair.training/blogs/power-bi-architecture/
• https://powerbi.microsoft.com/

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/