Forum Discussion
Enterprise solution, how?
Thanks!
Yes, we're going for 2016 so yes, we also have the new SSRS capabillities to weigh in.
Everything points to cubes except that then all users would have to be pro users. I'm thinking that some of the users will be both infrequent and only use a few reports. They might sufice with the free subscription given that the data source is not an on prem cube.
We're trying to find a solution were we can say for solution X we use a cube for solution Y we use PBI desktop. And if solution Y scales up we upgrade that to a cube.
One solution would be to build every model in Power Pivot because that model is migrateable to both SSAS and PBI desktop.
I just feel that there are a lot of ifs and buts here.
/Martin
Also keep in mind the use cases for end user. I'm not sure about licensing for SQL 2016 yet, but I imagine it'll be similar to SQL 2014. Enterprise Edition is just core licensing - unlimited users. BI Edition is cores + CAL - pay per head. Anything below BI edition isn't worth much if you're looking to leverage SSAS and the upgrade path from Power Pivot.
So, in SQL 2016, you'll have SSRS mobile, which is just rebranded Datazen, available through the Power BI mobile app, and in a web viewer with no need for PBI Pro licenses.
You'll also have paginated reports - SSRS Classic, as it were.
What do your users need to do with BI? If your rare users are primarily consumers, then host those reports through SSRS, exposed however you want, and then don't worry about Pro PBI licenses. Power BI is really more for the use case of interactive exploration and personalization.
Further down the line, there will be the ability to host PBI data models in SQL 2016 SSRS. I haven't heard confirmation on dates, but it sounds like that would be a service pack update.