Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Try your skills in the Power BI Dataviz World Championship! Round one ends June 26. Join now

Reply
dws
New Member

cloud

We are a start-up software firm building a cloud-based application using SQL Server as the db.   We're exploring possibly using Power BI as the business intelligence solution for our customer/clients.   

 

I have a trial version of Power BI desktop installed and have connected to a local SQL Server database but can't seem to figure out how to connect to an off-premises database / data warehouse.   Our current vision is to have our customer clients, using Power BI, connect to a central cloud-based database/data warehouse (with security controls/partitioned) for reports/dashboards/etc.   I can't assume that the customer/clients have SQL Server.

 

Is there something I'm missing?   Any suggestions on how to cost-effectively accomplish this with Power BI?   Thanks. 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Anonymous
Not applicable

@dws,

You can create reports after connecting to SQL database in Power BI Desktop, publish the reports to Power BI Service, then create dashboards in Power BI Service and share the dashboards to your customers.

Regards,
Lydia

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
Anonymous
Not applicable

@dws,

You can create reports after connecting to SQL database in Power BI Desktop, publish the reports to Power BI Service, then create dashboards in Power BI Service and share the dashboards to your customers.

Regards,
Lydia

Helpful resources

Announcements
Fabric Data Days is here Carousel

Data Days 2026

Don't miss out on Data Days, June 15 through August 7. Learn Fabric, Power BI, SQL, AI and more.

Power BI DataViz World Championships carousel

Power BI DataViz World Championships - June 2026

A new Power BI DataViz World Championship is coming this June! Don't miss out on submitting your entry.