Overview of Power BI Components

Overview of Power BI Components

Power BI has two main components: downloadable software and web services.  Ironically, the software costs nothing, but the web service is where your costs can mount up.

Instructions

Getting started

• Download Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft store
• Go to PowerBI.com and enter your email to check if you have an account
• Sign up for a free account using your “work” email address if needed

How it works

• Design your reports in Power BI Desktop
• Collect your data from “on-prem” or cloud-based services
• Publish your data to the Power BI service
• Consume your reports on any device

Where the costs come in:

• Virtually everything can be done on a free pricing tier except sharing
• Sharing with other users requires a “pro” license for both author and consumer
• Large organizations can provision Power BI premium to get read-only licenses for their users (authors still need pro subscriptions)

Hints & tips

• Power BI desktop is updated with new features every month
• Installing from the Microsoft Store provides a version that updates automatically, so IT never has to visit your desktop
• The first person to create a PowerBI.com account for your domain sets the region your data is stored in
• New accounts will be automatically associated if the domain exists