Ask advice for using gateway and optimization Power BI

Hi Anonymous ,

Great questions about gateway setup and optimization. Let me break this down for you:

Gateway and User Access: Yes, you can absolutely set up gateway access so users can view reports without needing direct database credentials. Here's how it works:

• The gateway uses a service account to connect to SQL Server
• Users access the Power BI reports through their Power BI licenses
• They never need SQL Server access directly

For your optimization concerns: You're right to think about performance early. Without a data warehouse, here are some practical approaches:

Gateway will help with performance - your computer won't be doing the heavy lifting anymore. The gateway server handles data refresh, which is much more efficient.

Power Query optimization tips:

• Use query folding wherever possible (avoid custom columns that break folding)
• Filter data early in your queries, not later
• Consider incremental refresh if you have large tables with date columns
• Import only the columns you actually need

Model optimization:

• Use DirectQuery for very large tables if real-time data isn't critical
• Consider a composite model (some tables imported, some DirectQuery)
• Aggregate tables for summary-level reporting

Quick question: How large are we talking about? Number of rows and tables? This will help determine the best approach.

The gateway is definitely worth it for moving the processing off your local machine and enabling scheduled refreshes.

If my response resolved your query, kindly mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, I would be grateful for a 'Kudos' if you found my response helpful.
This response was assisted by AI for translation and formatting purposes.