Forum Discussion
On-Prem vs. Cloud?
Hi,
We use the On-Prem server extensively, without it we would not be able to use Power BI in any meaningful way as we are not able to put our data in the cloud. This is due to governance and licensing issues.
We have software assurance on our SQL Server licences so we can use the on-prem server under those agreements without incurring further charges, something that for us is a major win. The Cloud based deployment can get very expensive if you have a large number of users needing access.
We also have an existing SSRS investment that the on-prem server allows us to integrate with.
Generally we are finding the Report Server a stable and useable option, we are currently on the Oct 2017 release. There are a few problems, some bugs, and missing functionality, but on the whole it’s a working solution.
We are however concerned that the PBI team are not forthcoming about the release schedule for Report Server. The cloud version gets monthly updates, so far the on-prem version is 3 months out of date with no upcoming catch-up release date announced. I have post requests for an update but they have gone unanswered. The only indication I have been given is that a new version will be released “towards summer time”, that’s not good.
In summary, the on-prem server is good, and we are using it extensively. But it needs a more open and professional approach from Microsoft when it comes to a roadmap for future releases.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Was just wondering if you wouldn't mind answering acouple questions based on your experience. After much deliberation, we are currently just about to implement an on-prem solution. I noticed in your post below you mentioned in the second paragraph you have software assurance on your SQL server licenses and therefore you can use on -prem under those agreements, I was aware of this however the way you mention it seems to imply that if you had decided to use the product in the cloud you would have had to pay extra on top of the S/A to use the product in the cloud. is this correct? I had thought that if you had assurance you get to use Power BI on prem or in the cloud without incurring extra cost, after reading your post I am thinking that is not the case can you shed any more light on this?
In the thrid paragraph you mention you have a SSRS investment, we do too, when you say the on-prem server allows integration do you mean that you host your SSRS reports on the power BI server? We currently use share point for hosting SSRS reports and before that SQL server native when we had standard edition. So I am interested to know if we still need to use sharepoint to host our SSRS reports, or if once we deploy the on-prem power BI solution we can deploy our SSRS reports there as well and have everything in one place.
Thanks in advance
Des
Hi des,Happy to help, but a little caveat, I am not a MS Licensing expert, so you need to check this with the people you buy your licenses from or Microsoft direct maybe. I'm looking at the SQL Server 2017 Licensing Datasheet ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/sql-server/sql-server-2017-pricing ) as I write this.
My understanding is that if you Buy a SQL server 2016 / 2017 Enterprise License with Software Assurance then you are allowed to download and install the Power BI Report Server on the same server you have the SQL Sever installed. It has to be Enterprise and it has to have SA. This is what we have done, and it works fine. But this is only On-Prem, as I understand it.
To be able to use PBI in the cloud you need a different Cloud based subscription, if you want to have both On-Prem and Cloud I think you best option is to purchase Power BI Premium ( https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi-premium/ ) this gives you both the On_Prem Report Server and the Cloud Based service.
With regard to the SSRS (or paginated reports as they are referred to now !) yes we have deployed both the PBI and the SSRS reports to the same PBI Report Server. We have actually gone a stage further and managed to dynamically link SSRS reports (with parameters) to PBI reports.
Hope this helps, happy to answer anything else if you need more info.
Kind Regards
Rob
Thanks Rob,
That was very helpful.
Regards,
Des
Has anyone compared the total costs of the On-Prem vs. Cloud pricing for Power BI? I've seen the online calculators, but they seem to assume your are going for the $5K/option and we don't have that many users. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Hi Rob,
We are trying to link SSRS reports to PBI reports dynamically with parameters as you have mentioned. So far, I have only come across the option of dynamically generating URLs with slicer values to connect to PBI from SSRS, but I am not sure if this is the best way to do it. Would you mind sharing how you did it?
Regards,
Sharmin
Hi Anonymous,
Happy to pass on the technique we use.
Essentially the trick is to use DAX. We create a calculated column in our data model that is a concatenated of the SSRS report URL and the parameters we wish to pass, job number, person ref etc.
We then mark that column as a web link / URL and on the PBI dashboard we include it in the table etc. As its a link when you click on it PBI navigates to the link,and that then opens SSRS report viewer.
if I remember right there is a "Guy In A Box" Youtube video that explains it, probably better than I have.
If you get stuck come back to me and I'll include a bit more detail.
Rob
