Forum Discussion
Build Model in Analysis Services vs. Power BI
Yes, you can absolutely do that. Generally when you do it that way, you build out the SSAS tabular model using something like SSIS to ingest the information and then you connect live (DirectQuery) to the model in Power BI Desktop.
Yes, you should be able to create additional measures when you connect live to an SSAS tabular model. Perhaps one of these days there will be a unified connector framework where everything uses Power Query...wouldn't that be awesome?
One other note, you can import a Power BI Desktop model into Azure Analysis Services if you want to use SSAS that way.
Thank you Greg_Deckler! Now that I have found a knowledgeable resource, I'm going to pick your brains until you say "enough!". :)
Can you point me to some good current resources for studying this further?
"Semantic Data Model" is the term I had in mind when I first began in this job, but I had not seen it used by Microsoft in relation to their products until yesterday. Finally I turned up the right search terms and clicked through the right links to end up at "Semantic BI Model" in relation to Microsoft products. But those articles are from 2012 - so I question whether that's still a useful term when discussing the capabilities of Microsoft products.
I am annoying the heck out of executives, managers, and others at my place of business, asking for clarification and details, and nitpicking. But I view that as the most important part of my job, and the best of my several capabilities I bring to the job. I want to build a good Semantic Data Model that can be used as the data source for Power BI, SSRS reports, Excel, with a lot less direct IT involvement.