Question based on a Power BI scenario

[akj2784]

Scenario:

We are using Power BI Desktop Currently. In next 5-6 months, we are planning to have Azure Analysis Services.

We have Oracle Servers in our Company.

We have to create data model in Power BI Desktop so that once we have AAS in place we can resuse whatever developement we do.

We have huge volume of data in many tables.

Ques:

1. Shall we use Import method or Direct Query Method for our developement if we have all the tables in Oracle Server. ?

2. What should we do share our report with the users within our organization. If we use import method, the secured data would be pushed to cloud which we don't want currently as we don't have license yet.

If we use Direct Query method, we need to create Personal Gateway to connect to database so that we can see data in the reports.

3. There are some limitations in the Direct Query Method e.g. Merge Two columns not supported in Direct Query. If have many limitations in Direct Query approach, is it worth doing the development using this approach. ?

4. Is it safe if we publish the datamodel to the service and have on premise personal gateway to connect to db ? Because I am putting tns entry of my database on services.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Akash

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@akj2784

Ques:

1. Shall we use Import method or Direct Query Method for our developement if we have all the tables in Oracle Server. ? "Depends on what "Huge Volume" means. Import will be faster, and give you the most flexibility in utilizing any ETL actions in the Query Editor in PBI. Direct Query is going to be slower and much of your ETL will need to be done on the DB side. You may have to do this if either the processing of the Power BI file takes to long, or gets to large. 

2. What should we do share our report with the users within our organization. If we use import method, the secured data would be pushed to cloud which we don't want currently as we don't have license yet. - If you can't push data to the cloud, then you are stuck using Direct Query which will keep your data on premises. Any sort of sharing in Power BI will require a Pro license.

If we use Direct Query method, we need to create Personal Gateway to connect to database so that we can see data in the reports. I would install the "normal" gateway (Enterprise) instead of personal. Personal is tied directly to one account, the Enterprise one is what you want to set up. 

3. There are some limitations in the Direct Query Method e.g. Merge Two columns not supported in Direct Query. If have many limitations in Direct Query approach, is it worth doing the development using this approach. ? -It wouldn't be wasted development as the source for your AAS model in the future could use the same source information instead of doing that in Power Query 

4. Is it safe if we publish the datamodel to the service and have on premise personal gateway to connect to db ? Because I am putting tns entry of my database on services. - Both gateways are secure... I'd still recommend not using the personal gateway. the other option allows more than one person to manage the gateway.