topic Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution in Developer

Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution

addzulu — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:54:31 GMT

Hello,

Our organization is technically exploring a new solution in Microsoft ecosystem from our current reporting environment. We've looked in to Power BI and it's simplicity of designing and building reports and dashboard, which we really liked. But, we're struggling on how to bring our current system to Power BI. We've more than 20 thousands of users accross the globe. Our users use the report/dashboard based on their folder access and row level access. We see that Power BI also has row level security but workspace solution to control folder access seems very complex per our requirements. We've 100s of folders and each folder has it's own access and user control. We don't think workspace will be a smart solution. How should we handle the folder/access in Power BI?

1. What is folder equivalent in Power BI?

2. How do we security manage the end users (>20k users) by folders?

3. If Power BI isn't the reporting tool then what other tool is available to convert our current system.

4. Monthly users access/visit ~67k

I'm attaching sample sccreen shot of our current environment. Your help, feedback, lesson learn will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Re: Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution

Greg_Deckler — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:41:59 GMT

addzulu Folders in the Power BI service are in Preview but they are merely organizational, there is no security aspect to them. You're only real security container is workspace in Power BI. Maybe PBRS would get you there but that's on-premises. On potential would be to use embedded (A - SKU) and create your own front-end.

Re: Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution

addzulu — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 17:30:46 GMT

Greg_Deckler , Thanks much, this was really helpful. Well, being able to use folders (Preview) is definitely great news for our team. Regarding "use embedded (A - SKU)" can you elaborate little more on this please? Will we be able to manage users and access in folder/category structured?

Thanks,

Re: Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution

Greg_Deckler — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 17:53:56 GMT

addzulu So, in theory, yes. In this case, the application would control the security to different folders and reports. You would use app owns data: Understanding the different embedding solutions in Power BI embedded analytics | Microsoft Learn

The web application itself would present the list of folders and reports in the folders. Thus, based on the login ID of the user, you could control which folders users have access to via the app. You should also be able to support RLS with embedded: Security in Power BI embedded analytics - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Re: Power BI Enterprise Level Reporting Solution

babybots — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:00:35 GMT

One thing I'd add to Greg's recommendation is that before designing the Power BI architecture, I'd challenge whether the existing folder structure should be migrated at all.

In many legacy reporting platforms, folders evolve into a security model rather than a content organization model. Over time you end up with hundreds of folders because they are being used to express permissions, business units, regions, departments, etc.

If that's the case, I would avoid creating a matching hierarchy of Power BI workspaces or apps.

Instead:

Model security using Entra ID groups and/or application-managed permissions.
Use RLS/OLS for data access.
Organize reports by business domain rather than by security boundary.
If using Power BI Embedded, let the application determine which reports are visible to the user.

I've seen several enterprise migrations where the reporting conversion was straightforward, but recreating years of accumulated folder permissions became the real challenge. Often the best outcome is to migrate the security intent rather than the physical folder structure.

How many reports and distinct security combinations are you currently managing? That usually determines whether a Power BI Service-only approach is sufficient or whether Embedded becomes the better long-term architecture.