Is Power BI a cloud based BI Tools

[limcheehang]

Dear all, 

We are currently using Qlikview as a BI tools and trying to explore to this Power BI tools. But i would like to find out is Power BI a cloud base tools ? Meaning even our report is connect to local SQL server? The data will be uploaded to cloud once we publish our report? 

As our company don't allow the company information on cloud. What we need is a local BI tools that help us in preparing the report and share among the local office user only. 

Hope someone can share more. Thank you

[v-micsh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi limcheehang,

Power BI service is cloud based, which is built on Microsoft Azure.

And security is as always the most important part that Microsoft keep focus on, check the article below for more information regarding Power Bi security:

Microsoft Power BI Security

For On-Premises Environment, currently the product team is working on this part, see:

Power BI & SSRS 2016 in an On-Premises Environment

Also an idea for reference: PowerBI reports and dashboard on-premise hosting

Adding Power BI Desktop support for SQL server Reporting Services 2016.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to post back.

Regards

[v-micsh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi limcheehang,

Power BI service is cloud based, which is built on Microsoft Azure.

And security is as always the most important part that Microsoft keep focus on, check the article below for more information regarding Power Bi security:

Microsoft Power BI Security

For On-Premises Environment, currently the product team is working on this part, see:

Power BI & SSRS 2016 in an On-Premises Environment

Also an idea for reference: PowerBI reports and dashboard on-premise hosting

Adding Power BI Desktop support for SQL server Reporting Services 2016.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to post back.

Regards

[ankitpatira]

@limcheehang Yes Power bi is a cloud-based offering ie you access and share your reports / dashboards via power bi service but good thing about PBI is that it caters for very basic need of organisation to not store its data in the cloud. With Power BI connecting to SQL Server you have option of using DirectQuery feature which means your data is not imported and stored in PBI cloud but it stays on-premise on your servers and you're still able to access that data via reports in power bi service. Find out more about DQ feature here.

[limcheehang]

Dear all, 

We are currently using Qlikview as a BI tools and trying to explore to this Power BI tools. But i would like to find out is Power BI a cloud base tools ? Meaning even our report is connect to local SQL server? The data will be uploaded to cloud once we publish our report? 

As our company don't allow the company information on cloud. What we need is a local BI tools that help us in preparing the report and share among the local office user only. 

Hope someone can share more. Thank you

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

To add to the options, you can use a Pyramid Analytics Server to publish reports as a replacement for publishing to the Power BI Service.

Also, SQL Server 2016 has the ability to present PBIX files (created in Desktop) to present out to users. In the near future, this will not just open up Power BI Desktop when you click on one of these as it does today but actually render the report via SSRS web site.

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Further to add, what you can do is using the On-Premise Gateway is to configure it, so that you can use the direct query. In doing it in this way, all your data will always remain on your premises.

[djnww]

Hi @limcheehang,

Power BI Online is definitely Cloud based. However, there are a few workaround solutions:

1. Use Power BI Desktop to share reports internally that use on premise databases. Within Power BI you can create a template which you can share with users. When they open the template, it will automatically grab data from your on premise sources WITHOUT publishing it to the cloud.

2. You can use the Microsoft Enterprise Gateway with Power BI Cloud. What this will do is only present data from your on premise sources as required by the user. Think of it as a presentation layer. The data itself is not permanently stored on the Cloud.

Cheers,

Dan

[dlash]

Dan 

Do I have to enable the Microsoft cloud to have access to my data. My company definately does NOT want ANY data leaving our firewalls.

thanks