Content Packs vs Apps

[gopowerbi]

Hello together,

So as I was doing some research about implementing Power BI in our company and embed it on Dynamics 365, I have come across one solution - that actually should be replaced as it is not going to be supported in the future: content packs:

IT User/Department creates through Power BI Desktop a Dataseet > publish it on Power Bi Service -> creates a Content Pack and gives access to a non-IT User/Department

NON-IT User(Key user)/Department downloads the content pack -> creates a copy -> creates/edit reports & dashboards -> publish it on Dynamics 365:

Advantages:

1.     The IT Department offers only the dataset and does not have to invest time on reports and dashboards
2.     The NON-IT Department does not have to invest time on sending reports/dashboards requests to the IT-Department and can create them as the want and when they want
3.     The NON-IT Department does not have access to the database 

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BUT WE SHOULD NOT USE CONTENT PACKS ANYMORE AS THE REPLACEMENT OF IT ARE "CONSUMER APPS" COMBINED WITH APPS WORKSPACE

App Workspace:

Is basically a Group of IT and NON-IT Users who can edit the Dataset and create Reports and Dashboards (if users can edit content, but only viewing it doesn't make sence to me because it actually does what "consumer apps" do. -> they create an App and share it with some users they want

Consumer App:

The NON-IT User can download it and interact with it. 

Advantages:

1. The so-called "staging environment" is available, which gives to "App Workspace" the opportunity to choose the time the update the "new release" of the Consumer App
2. Consumer Users don't have to have the Pro-Licence (but the company has to have the "Premium package")

Disatvantages:

1. Also NON-IT Users (members of the App Workspace) can download the dataset and edit it -> risk of destroying the dataset
2. The "Consumers" don't have the possibility to make a copy of the App and edit it buy their needs
3. The "Consumers" don't have the possibilty to embedd the dashboard on Dynamics 365?

So if my IT-Department wants only to offer Datasets, from where the NON-IT Department creates reports and dashboards -> currently possible only with Content Packs but in the future not at all (as the NON-IT Department cannot make copies of Apps) right? 

How does your company use Power BI in similar situatian like in my company?

Thank you in advance for your answers. 

[v-sihou-msft · Accepted solution]

@gopowerbi

In this scenario, since your IT Department only wants to offer the dataset, and they definitely don't want this dataset be destoryed, it's better to use Content Pack. You NON-IT users can download the content pack and get a copy of the dataset. They can create whatever reports/dashboards. And the changes they made will not impact the source dataset at all. 

Regards,

[jeppesal]

Do you know when content packs are being removed as a sharing option?

MS has warned about this since Apps but there is still a huge gap between Apps and content packs 😞

We need the following content pack features:

- Multiple apps per workspace.

- Users being able to create personal dashboards/reports from a shared and central dataset.