Forum Discussion
Measures and CalcColumns in Power BI vs Tabular model (replace SSAS with Power BI?)
You need Analysis Services if you have one of the following requirements:
- You need to have row level security
- Your data set is greater than 250MB
- You need to have a fine grained control over how your model is refreshed from the source data (partitioning)
If the aforementioned requirements are not present, then using Power Pivot or Power BI Desktop to build your model and publish it to Power BI is a valid and wonderful choice.
Hi Eno1978,
I think you misunderstood my question.
What I am trying to find out is if I can simply replace the SSAS tabular model by creating measures, calculated columns and relationships in Power BI instead -- thus making SSAS irrelevant.
Bottom line: If I could replace SSAS with a cloud-only feature, I would.
pmdci the Power BI desktop is not a "cloud only" feature, and the site doesn't allow you to build models.
Regardless, Could you move your model into the desktop tool? "Sure". Here are the trade-offs.
SSAS - row level security (Desktop - none)
SSAS - Does not store you information in the cloud (Desktop will)
SSAS - Live connection to your model (Desktop - only update up to 8 times a day)
I would not compare the modeling capability in Power BI directly to SSAS as equal in performance and capabilities. In terms of the tools, I would say (in general) the modeling tool in the desktop tool is designed for small projects, and SSAS is best utilized in larger company wide implementations. (especially if you have the option).