Hi. There different ways to get close to near realtime or even create real time. The thing is that you really need to know how to handle those structures in order to perform correctly. It's usually a bad idea to think on getting always realtime when the reports need to show data from daily stuff like sales, retail, etc.
There is a thing called Direct Query at PowerBi. It runs queries against the source each time a user interacts with a report. It has cache that can take between 5 to 15 minutes to help with performance but it's very close to the "realtime". However here is the thing, in order to make something like that work, you need a source prepared to receive that amount of queries to reply. It's not that easy. You need to develop the power bi with determined practices so you can provide an acceptable performance.
More info o direct query: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-use-directquery
Guidance doing direct query: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/directquery-model-guidance
Most of the power bi developments work with Import Mode. The idea is creating schedule refreshes to get the data to the model. You can think up to 8 refreshes a day. This way the performance is rarely compromised.
I hope that helps
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.Happy to help!
LaDataWeb Blog
