Training non IT users to build reports using DirectQuery over Snowflake

Two thoughts:

- About time that IT gets out of their own way. This whole concept of commodity computing has taken way too long to become accepted reality.  Yes, data security and data stewardship are huge topics, and IT can/must continue to play a role there. But business analysis and insight mining should be done by business users together with analysts/data scientists that can translate business speak into ML models.

Two of the most impactful changes in Power BI (in my view) are the introduction of Analyze in Excel and its XMLA endpoint brethren, and the "Personalize Visual"  feature.  While the former is soothing the fears of the Excel crowd, the latter feature is singlehandedly transforming click-phobic executives into avid information discoverers and Power BI advocates.

- Yes, there is a cost to Power BI for licensing and maintenance, but it is manageable even for larger companies as the vast majority of the infrastructure (apart from the gateways) is in the Azure cloud.  As you mention, preventing the data from going walkies is a much bigger challenge, and it requires processes outside of Power BI to be setup as well (up to and including contractual language like standards of business conduct). I don't know if the usage of Power BI or other BI tools increases that challenge or not.