Can PowerBI address those needs and constraints?

[Antoine_Ch]

Hi everyone,

I have a challenging PowerBi roll-out environment and i'm looking for confirmation on whether it is possible or not. Any help is most welcomed!

One of my clients is a medium size company, looking to monetize data through dashboards for which external clients would pay a subscription. PowerBi might be the right way to do it, but the company has specific constraints:

a/ Mandatory: On-premises data storage and granular data must never leave the country (France) even for calculation. Database should be powered by PostGreSQL, but is still under discussion. Volume as csv equivalent would be around 100 Go.

b/ Mandatory: secured and indivudualized access for clients. No client should ever be able to see another's data, or a granularity other than that specifically aimed at.

c/ No licence should be required for external clients. A licence may be packaged in the subscription to access the dashboard but should be seamless for the client.

d/ aimed at: dashboards should be refreshed on a daily basis

e/ aimed at: mobile ready sharing capabilities

I gather from the pricing webpage ( https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/) that PowerBi premium plan "per capacity" using report server could correspond (?):

Constraint a/ tackled through features ”On-premises reporting with Power BI Report Server”, “Model memory size limit”, “Connect to more than 100 data sources”, and “Dataflows (direct query, linked and computed entities, enhanced compute engine)”

Constraint b/ through "Data security and encryption". I see no mention on the page of row level security, though. And i'm unsure if power pages can help address my need given all the constraints.

Constraint c/ I'm not sure what to look for for this one.

Constraint d/ the refresh rate in the PowerBi premium plan seems plenty enough

Constraint e/ I have no idea how well it fits with options mentioned above, like power pages

Which brings me to my questions:

1/ How well would the PowerBi premium plan "per capacity" using report server address the problem?

2/ What alternative ideas could help consider the specific constraints?

3/ What would be the main cost items (setting and run) for this infra?

4/ What companies have the know-how to help for the roll-out? I was referred by Microsoft to one of its partners, but they did not even bother to answer my questions.

Any thoughts?

[Antoine_Ch]

Ok, thanks a lot for taking the time. I'm not sure where that leaves us, i'll have to investigate. But this is a good start.

Any additional idea from people knowledgeable on the subject would be much appreciated.

Regards,

[josef78]

I think bad idea, Power BI Report Server platform is not focused to monetize data to external clients, it is platform focused to "business" intelligence reporting and online analytics, mainly for in-company business. I'm not sure if it is good approach ... But technically, I think, is possible...

a/ PBI RS single report limit in import mode is 2GB of compressed data. But you can use direct query, paginated reports or analysis services without this limit. All data can be on on-premise infrastructure on your physical servers.

b/ yes you can use RLS

c/ Power BI RS is licenced per core, without any limit for consumers clients

d/ Power BI RS reports you can refresh as many as you want (limit is only for Power BI in cloud)

e/ Power BI RS working with mobile app

1) Yes, but for long term period is better licence thru SQL Server Enterprise Edition with SA with 3year subcription (Power BI Premium is more expensive), and also, with SQL Server licenci you will get also SQL Server database, analysis services, and integration services.

2) I don't know

3) first licences for SQL Server or Power BI Premium, second is cost for server infrastructure.

4) I don't know

[Antoine_Ch]

Thanks a lot for your answer. It makes things clearer, even if I still have a few questions.

If I understand correctly, you are saying that it's possible to use PBI report server to share reports with external clients via web with specific RLS access, but that's not what it was made for initially. But if we go ahead, this is better done through SQL Server Enterprise Edition rather than PowerBi premium for cost reasons.

1/ Is this summary correct?

2/ When you say it's not focused on external clients, what are the downsides of using it in that way? Security? Costs? Features?

3/ How can the reports actually be shared to external clients via web while still ensuring clients only get access to their data? Is there a way to embed such report in webpages and avoid a licence for the end-user?

It would be nice to turn PowerBi into a viable option, but not at the cost of bending it far out of shape.

Regards,

[josef78 · Accepted solution]

1/ Not exactly. From feature perspective, Power BI Report Server is not focused as some data monetization portal. From cost perspective, If you want use Power BI Report Server (independent on purpose), for long time period is cost-effective to licence thru SQL Server.

2/ Features and additional costs. Power BI RS is reporting and analyics platform, not monetization portal. Power BI is too complex only for data monetization, you maybe will pay for online analytic features which you do not need. 

3/ I'm not licence expert (especially for external access to on-prem enviroment), without warranty, PBIRS is licenced per core, for unlimited number of users, also SQL server as underlined database is licenced per core. But will need check OS level licences, maybe External connector licence.

Think about cloud Power BI Service, because is much more ready for your purpose (but still, it is primary data analytic platform). Or maybe hybrid approach, you can store data in SQL Server or Analysis Services hosted on-premises, and use cloud Power BI reports/dashboard/app only as front-end live-connected to your on-premise storage.