Seeking Advice: Deploying Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service in AWS Cloud

[manoj_0911]

Hello Power BI Community,

I'm in need of guidance regarding the deployment of Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service in the AWS cloud environment. Specifically, I'm looking for insights on how to set up Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service in AWS and establish connections to our customer's production SQL Server database, which is already hosted in the AWS cloud.

I have a few questions:

1. What are the best practices for deploying Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service in the AWS cloud?
2. How can I securely connect Power BI Desktop to our customer's production SQL Server database in AWS?
3. Which deployment method is more secure and effective: installing Power BI Service in AWS or using Power BI Cloud product and connecting to AWS servers?
4. If I opt for Power BI Cloud, can I create reports using Power BI Desktop and connect to SQL Server hosted in the AWS cloud, then publish the reports to Power BI Cloud?

Any insights, recommendations, or experiences you can share on these topics would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your assistance and expertise!

Best regards,
Manoj Prabhakar

[v-junyant-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @manoj_0911 ,

Best Practices for Deploying Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service in AWS: Deploying Power BI in an AWS environment involves considering network configuration, data security, and efficient data transfer. For Power BI Service, it's a SaaS offering, so the deployment in AWS specifically pertains to how you manage data sources and gateways. For Power BI Desktop, it's more about ensuring your local environment can securely access AWS resources.
1. Ensure network connectivity between Power BI Service and AWS-hosted SQL Server is optimized and secure. Utilize Azure ExpressRoute or AWS Direct Connect for more reliable and secure connections.
2. Use Power BI Data Gateway for connecting to SQL Server in AWS from Power BI Service. This guide on deploying a data gateway is a good starting point.
On-premises data gateway - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
3. Consider data refresh strategies and performance implications. Power BI guidance documentation provides best practices for data preparation and report development.
Power BI guidance documentation - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Securely Connecting Power BI Desktop to SQL Server in AWS:
1. Ensure your SQL Server in AWS is configured to accept secure connections. Use SSL to encrypt data in transit.
2. When connecting from Power BI Desktop, choose the "DirectQuery" option for real-time data access or "Import" for data ingestion, depending on your use case. Ensure you have the necessary firewall rules and security groups configured in AWS to allow access from your IP address.

Power BI Service in AWS vs. Power BI Cloud with AWS:
1. Power BI Service is a cloud-based SaaS offering by Microsoft and doesn't get "installed" in AWS. Your decision here would be between using Power BI Service directly or setting up a virtual environment in AWS to use Power BI Desktop for report creation.
2. For security and effectiveness, leveraging Power BI Cloud (Service) directly is generally more secure due to Microsoft's comprehensive security measures. Connecting to AWS servers is done through data gateways or direct cloud connections, ensuring data security.

Creating Reports in Power BI Desktop and Publishing to Power BI Cloud:

Yes, you can create reports in Power BI Desktop using SQL Server hosted in AWS as a data source and publish these reports to Power BI Cloud. Ensure your Power BI Desktop is signed in with the same account as your Power BI Service. Use the "Publish" feature within Power BI Desktop to upload your reports directly to the Power BI Service.

And maybe you can read this document to get more professional and detailed advice:
Using Microsoft Power BI Desktop in the AWS Cloud - Using Microsoft Power BI with the AWS Cloud (ama...

Best Regards,
Dino Tao
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.