Forum Discussion
Understanding the Power BI Premium reserved capacities
Hi,
I've read this article https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/enterprise/service-premium-what-is
and I'd like to understand better what "reserved capacities" means.
Moreover, does it refers also to PPU license?
Thanks
Hi Anonymous,
I’ll explain the concept at a high level. Please note that, for the sake of brevity, this explanation is not completely accurate.
The datasets and reports hosted in the Power BI Service use resources- Compute, RAM, Storage, etc.
There are two, main, methods to gain access to those resources & the Power BI capabilities:- Shared Capacity- You need to purchase a Power BI license for each user. This license can be Pro/PPU. Each licensed user can create/consume/share datasets and reports. The resources used are shared between all Power BI licensed users (e.g., users from different organizations are being served from the same resource pool). MS manages the sharing. You get no exact guarantees as to the amount of resources each user will be provided at a given time. A PPU license gives you access to additional features plus a bigger shared capacity resource pool. This is usually suitable for small & medium-sized organizations.
- Dedicated (Reserved) Capacity- You, as an organization, purchase the right to use a set amount of resources for a period of time. For example, you can use 4 backend VCores & 25 GB of RAM for 1 calendar year. This capacity is dedicated to your organization. You are guaranteed to have those resources available. You can allow every user in your organization to consume reports (using a Power BI free license). To develop the datasets and organizational reports you will still need some users with a Power BI Pro license. You also get access to features not available to pro users (mostly the same extra features as a PPU user). This does not refer to PPU licenses and is usually suitable for large organizations.
You can also combine the two methods.
Anonymous in case it answered your question please mark this as a solution to help other community members find it more easily.
1 Reply
- SpartaBI
Community Champion
Hi Anonymous,
I’ll explain the concept at a high level. Please note that, for the sake of brevity, this explanation is not completely accurate.
The datasets and reports hosted in the Power BI Service use resources- Compute, RAM, Storage, etc.
There are two, main, methods to gain access to those resources & the Power BI capabilities:- Shared Capacity- You need to purchase a Power BI license for each user. This license can be Pro/PPU. Each licensed user can create/consume/share datasets and reports. The resources used are shared between all Power BI licensed users (e.g., users from different organizations are being served from the same resource pool). MS manages the sharing. You get no exact guarantees as to the amount of resources each user will be provided at a given time. A PPU license gives you access to additional features plus a bigger shared capacity resource pool. This is usually suitable for small & medium-sized organizations.
- Dedicated (Reserved) Capacity- You, as an organization, purchase the right to use a set amount of resources for a period of time. For example, you can use 4 backend VCores & 25 GB of RAM for 1 calendar year. This capacity is dedicated to your organization. You are guaranteed to have those resources available. You can allow every user in your organization to consume reports (using a Power BI free license). To develop the datasets and organizational reports you will still need some users with a Power BI Pro license. You also get access to features not available to pro users (mostly the same extra features as a PPU user). This does not refer to PPU licenses and is usually suitable for large organizations.
You can also combine the two methods.
Anonymous in case it answered your question please mark this as a solution to help other community members find it more easily.