Forum Discussion
Need Advice: Import Mode versus Direct Query (or composite) for Small Enterprise reporting
Super User"would connect to those using "live connection". Try to stay away from direct query. "
Nice(*) idea but not enforceable. Composite models allow you to bend live connections into direct query with local data model copy. This is a rather required feature as soon as your report connects to more than one golden data source
* - said in jest. One of the biggest aspects of what we are doing is the fundamental question "Are we trying to promote the usage of Power BI or are we trying to make it harder for the users?" . If you are getting in the way of the users' quest for actionable insights then they will go elsewhere and you have failed.
If the "golden datasets" each contained all of the required tables (and calculations and measures) needed for the creation of various reports, all in import mode, my thinking is that there would be no need for a report to connect to multiple data sets. And if new information is needed, it can be brought into the core (golden) data set via a dataflow (in import mode).
I guess my concern based on what I am reading is that using direct query (with purely dq or in mixed mode) could present with challenges based on the existing DAX code we have in many of our custom business logic formulas, not to mention potential performance issues.
- lbendlin
One thing to keep in mind. There is a difference in cost when you connect via Direct Query to an on-premise data source versus connecting to a Power BI Dataset in the Azure cloud via live/direct query.
So while you are right trying to prevent the former, you should encourage the latter.
NOTE: Connecting to a Dataflow via Direct Query may be a bad idea. Mandatory reading: DirectQuery and dataflows in Power BI – BI Polar (ssbipolar.com)
Thanks lbendlin We do not have any on-prem datasources (everything we'd connect to would be in the cloud, or we'd create a dataflow for it). I'm definitely not an expert in this stuff, but it seems to me the beauty of dataflows is in their flexibility (you can make them from all types of different sources) and create datasets from them (using import mode exclusively).
- lbendlin
Oh, then my initial suggestion on how to talk to your IT guy is a bit moot. You're not paying by usage, are you?