Suggestions on sharing a report with a large number of external people whilst maintaining RLS?

[D_PBI]

Hi,
It's been a few years since I've received a requirement like this so I thought, alongside my own Googling, I'd reach out to you to seek suggestions on the latest and greatest approach.

The current MVP is to build a single report, with a single report page that adheres to the following requirements:
1) Restrictions need to be built in to the report so that the consumers can only see visuals and data allowed as per their granted access:
     Level 1 - All report page visuals and all organisation data.
          Level 2 - All report page visuals but data only relating to the department they're in.
               Level 3 - Restriction on the report page visuals they can see and data only relating to the team they're in.
                    Level 4 - Restriction on the report page visuals they can see and data only relating to themselves.

2) The number of report consumers that are categorised in Levels 1-3 (above) may only be 20 strong. Paying $10 per month for each of those 20 people to have a Pro licence is not a problem. However, the number of report consumers Level 4 brings in is around 150+ people. Paying for a Power BI Pro licence each month is seen as costly.
Is there another apporach where the 150+ consumers can view and interact with the report but doesn't cost 150+ x $10 per month?
Is there an option to embed the PBI report into a website or Power Apps Portal that greatly reduces the montly costs?
Is there an apporach to provide viewability of the report's content (visuals) but where the consumer cannot interact with the report (cannot slice, etc..) but as a result of the non-interactive capability a saving cost is made?   If the latter is possible then I would need to ensure the information the consumer needs to see is shown in the report without any need for them to drill-down for further detail.

Of course, the key importance here is to restrict what data is shown based on who is the logged in consumer (referring to Levels 1-4 stated above). I expect RLS will cater for the Levels 1-4 restrictions.

The source data will be from Dynamics 365. The connection method will be Import Mode.

If you have any suggestions or guidance that will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[GilbertQ]

Hi @D_PBI 

your options would be to look at using Power BI Embedded, and depending in the size of your model this could be cost effective.

Another alternative is Power BI Premium when getting close to 400-500 users?

Also have a look at this option from Matt Allington Affordable Power BI Premium Using PowerBIShare.com - Excelerator BI

[D_PBI]

@GilbertQ  thanks for your response.

Firstly, I'm not sure my organisation would go via PowerBIShare.com route, but it was good to read.
I've spent a good portion of today reading about Power BI embedding (into a website/Power App portal) and I've concluded on the three possible options for my scenario.

Option 1:
Develop a PBI report utilising RLS to restrict shown data dependant on who views the report. Published the said report to an App for it to be consumed. If there are 150 people needing to view the report then it will cost $1500 (150 x $10) per month.

Option 2:
Follow the Power BI embedded approach. This is new to me but as I understand it it would start with developing the exact same report, with RLS, as in Option 1. Once complete, pass the report over to the Azure Admin team where they would complete the necssary steps to embed the PBI report into their chosen website/Power Apps portal. Steps such are creating the security group, creating the embed token - these are the steps I've witnessed in the below YT video.
https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjQmvwBAdU
I do believe the steps required to embed the report would lay with an Azure Admin rather than a PBI developer, escpacially as the above YT video is focused in the Azure Portal.
In trying to understand if the embedding route is considerbly cheaper, and therefore warrants the extra embedding/Azure effort, I found the below cost calculator. It would seem that the cost, for 30 days on the A1 Node Type is $750 per month. That's a lot cheaper than the $1500 (150 x $10). To reduce it further, I understand you can restrict when the embedding service is active - for example, to configure it so it the embedding service is only active Mon-Fri 9-5pm - this then costs as little as $40 per month. This is if I've understood it correctly.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/?service=power-bi-embedded

Option 3:
Follow Option 1 the same except to only build the report for Levels 1-3 (please see my OP for Levels 1-4 explanation). The consumers for Levels 1-3 will total around 20 strong and therefore the standard PBI Pro licencing would cost $200 per month.
What I would then seek to do is purchase a PBI Premium Per User licence to have the email subscription functionality and then look to email out a screenshot of the report showing just their data (their Level 4 data). I'm not even sure this email subscription aim is possible but it is just brainstorming.
Actually, can I ask, using a PBI Premium Per User licence, is it possible to create a screenshot of a PBI report and email that out as a PDF - but the screenshot needs to be restricted to show data only the email recipients are entitled to see?  So somehow the email subscription needs to read a list of email recipient UserPrincipleNames (UPN) and then apply the RLS against the UPN and package it up as a PDF and then fire of the email - is this possible?

Thanks.

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi @D_PBI 

Those are all valid options, what I would make 100% sure is the size of your dataset when embedding. By that I mean how much memory your dataset uses, how much it will use for dataset refreshing and how much memory it will use when DAX queries are being run.

You indicated an A1, which has a total memory footprint of 3GB.

With regards to your other question, the subscription would have to be created by the individual user in order for them to only see their data. If you create the subscription it will run under your account, which would let them see all the data.

[D_PBI]

@GilbertQ  thanks.

Looks like Option 3 is a non-starter as for the 130+ Level 4 consumers to be able to create their own email subscription, thus restricting the data they can see, would mean that each of the 130+ Level consumers would need a PBI Premium Per User licence, this is double the Pro licence which is what we're trying to avoid paying.

I mentioned the Node Type of A1 as the report will be very basic. Basic in volume of data (little tables, fields, rows) and they'll be little DAX. The report is just to give a snapshot (bar-graph, etc..) of their data/progress. For this reason, I expect A1 should suffice.
Although, I am aware of the below link to help calculate the capacity needed.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-bi/developer/embedded/embedded-capacity-planning

Thanks.

[GilbertQ]

Yeah that should then work fine with the A1 SKU