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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
9 years ago

Power BI vs Data Warehouse

Hi All, 

 

I was reading this great community thread on the pros/cons of a data warehouse vs Power BI. 

 

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Power-Bi-vs-Data-Warehouse/m-p/78650#M32787

 

I was wondering about what the latest perspective is on whether Power BI can/should be used as a replacement for a data warehouse?

 

Our business stores < 5 million rows of data and I'm interested in perspectives on whether similar sized organisations have adopted Power BI as their primary data management tool or whether they/you use it on top of a data warehouse? We're considering investing in a SSAS tabular set-up which seems great for highly normalised coprorate reporting but means we can't tap into some of the visualisation and integration tools available in the Power BI environment. 

 

Is there a road map, or indication, describing the future relationship between SSAS Tabular and Power BI? 

 

Thanks

 

pbix

 

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13 Replies

  • Phil_Seamark's avatar
    Phil_Seamark
    Microsoft Employee
    9 years ago

    Power BI should not be used as a data warehouse.  It works well with lots of data sources, including a data warehouse, but lacks some key functionallity around change tracking and incremental updates.  These are complementary technologies.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      9 years ago

      Thanks Phil. 

       

      I agree, Power BI worked great with data warehouse, except perhaps for not being able to combine data from the DWH which you might quickly want to mash up with other data and drill through - we still cant drill through to row detail [see records menu] held in SSAS Tabular from Power BI (which you can do if you import data into Power BI).

       

      Additionally with direct query we can query underlying data in SQL Server and build a model in Power BI rather than needing to build the model in SSAS.

       

      At the moment it feels like Power BI development is outpacing SSAS Tabular which is making some SSAS Tabuar functionality redundant.

       

      Do we have a roadmap about how SSAS Tabular will be developed and integrated with Power BI, or will Power BI eventually replace SSAS Tabular?

       

      Thanks!

       

      Pbix

      • MattAllington's avatar
        MattAllington
        Community Champion
        9 years ago

        As Phil has said, a Data Warehouse and Power BI are complementary.  A Data Warehouse is a storage database, Power BI is a reporting database.  

         

        Anonymous wrote:

         

        I agree, Power BI worked great with data warehouse, except perhaps for not being able to combine data from the DWH which you might quickly want to mash up with other data and drill through

         I don't understand the point you are making here.  Power BI is explicitly designed to get data from anywhere and mash it up - that's what it does.  

        - we still cant drill through to row detail [see records menu] held in SSAS Tabular from Power BI (which you can do if you import data into Power BI).

         

        Yes you can.  SSAS Tabular has an identical reporting engine underneath as Power BI.  If you write the identical database in Power BI and SSAS Tabular you will get identical results.  If you can't drill down to see the row level detail then it is related to your design, not SSAS Tabular


        Additionally with direct query we can query underlying data in SQL Server and build a model in Power BI rather than needing to build the model in SSAS.

         Direct Query does not have a data model in Power BI.  You either connect to SQL Server, or SSAS and use the source to determine what you can see, or you build a model in Power BI - you can't do both at once.


        At the moment it feels like Power BI development is outpacing SSAS Tabular which is making some SSAS Tabuar functionality redundant.

         As I mentiond above, SSAS Tabular and Power BI use the same underlying reporting engine (Vertipaq/Power Pivot).  There is very little development in this technology in either product.  The development of Power BI is mainly in the area of data import (Power Query) and visualisations.  

         

        What is becoming redundant in SSAS Tabular?

        Do we have a roadmap about how SSAS Tabular will be developed and integrated with Power BI, or will Power BI eventually replace SSAS Tabular?

         

         SSAS Tabular is already integrated with Power BI.  No Power BI will not replace SSAS Tabular.  SSAS Tabular is only 1/3 of what Power BI is.  Power BI has a reporting database (Power Pivot), an ETL tool (Power Query) and a visualisation/reporting tool (Power BI Visuals).  SSAS Tabular is just the first one (effectively Power Pivot for Enterprise).

  • djnww's avatar
    djnww
    Impactful Individual
    9 years ago

    Power BI/Qlik/Tableau VS Data Warehouse is probably the biggest misconception in the Business Intelligence space. Every few months, a new senior manager will ask this exact question. Let's save a million $$$ a year and stick with Power BI.

     

    We shoud, in fact, be comparing 'Power BI/Qlik/Tableau to SSRS' as all of these products are for designing reports.

     

    As someone else here said, a data warehouse and Power BI complement each other. You mentioned SSAS. Power BI/Qliksense/Tableau are pretty useless on their own in a large organisation. They do not have the capacity to interrogate, load and report on big data.

     

    Instead of a data warehouse, perhaps a data mart may suffice for many, which will be a few databases that work specifically for reporting, but not necessarily have the same firepower as a data warehouse.

     

    Here's the truth... once you give someone a taste of reporting, they will only want more and more as time goes on. Requirements will get more complex. Eventually, a data warehouse will be necessary anyway.