Forum Discussion
Azure SQL server connect to pbix file or Connect to Dataflow (which one Better and proper way?
If you start adding DataFlows for each table. Think carefully about how long it will take to refresh each table. In which case look at incremental refresh. Each refresh will require compute power which is the limiting factor long before you run into any issues about storage (IHMO).
The archtecture I recommend to my customers is always to load data into DataFlows. Do any prep, transform in the those if you have to. Then load the data into the DataSets as you need it. Have a look at https://ssbipolar.com/dataflows-in-power-bi/ as a starter for 10. Maybe - https://ssbipolar.com/2019/10/14/power-bite-dataflows-vs-datasets/.
Dataflows - load data into the Power BI service and then can be used to share the data within the Power BI service. Often used to supply data to many datasets, so load once share many times. More details on Dataflows start here - https://ssbipolar.com/dataflows-in-power-bi/
Datasets - the data in loaded into that specific dataset. Some clients then add a dataset for each report, which means the same data source (Azure Synapse) will be requested to pull data for each dataset.
Large companies IMHO - Dataflows supplying data to multiple datasets. Smaller companies - Datasets might be suitable, depends on the number of datasets.