Does Dataflow reduce the need to load data on source databases

[BrookBracewell2]

We have an on premise SQL Datawarehouse, and the management of both this environment and Power BI fall to the same group. I feel like data load from our on premise server to Power BI would be more efficient if we used dataflows however I have not seen this particular usecase featured. Would a load of tables in to dataflow mean a fact table is loaded once from On Prem and then reused accross my datamodels? It is quite sluggish building in to Workflow, then refreshing, then connecting to a desktop report and I am wondering if this is a wasted effort. Feedback is appreciated. Thanks

[otravers · Accepted solution]

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@BrookBracewell2 wrote:

Would a load of tables in to dataflow mean a fact table is loaded once from On Prem and then reused accross my datamodels?

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@BrookBracewell2 wrote:

Would a load of tables in to dataflow mean a fact table is loaded once from On Prem and then reused accross my datamodels?

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Yes, the re-use of source data across datasets is one of the primary use cases for dataflows.

[BrookBracewell2]

@otravers 
I hit a nother stumbling block, which is the requirement to have a shared model accross workspaces.  Any thoughts on that?

[otravers]

Yes, you can now share datasets and even promote them within an organization:

Share a dataset - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Power BI datasets can now also be queried from other datasets, which opens even more possibilities.

[BrookBracewell2]

Thanks- I am still not sold on the concept.
You load data to DataFlows, but still need to do a subsequent refresh of the datamodel. It might be quicker in Service than pulling from on Prem SQL database- but it still feels a way off what I want it to be - but I am quite demanding! 🙂