Why the need for Dataflows and Datamarts when Semantic Models can do all of this already??

Hey OptalyticBI ,

you will not miss "best practices" when you stick to your working method. You extract, transform, and load data, then you create your model and fínally you visualize the data and share the report with your colleagues. In our organization there are many teams developing Power BI solutions targetting large audiences, there are many teams creating apps for their departments, or sections, we have ~2.4k Pro licences installed.

Regarding dataflows
We recommend everyone who is asking (not every one does, and no one has to) to use dataflows. The reasoning behind this is the different compute architecture, dataflows are performing  way much faster then Power Query queries. With every compute second safed we safe money because we do not have to upgrade our capacities, at least not today.

Regarding datamarts

Currently we do not use datamarts, and most probably we never will. With the advent of Microsoft Fabric there are other means to share "raw" data (not the semantic model and also not the data visualizations) with other teams or external guest users. A datamart or a SQL endpoint as we now call it with Microsoft Fabric makes data more accessible, data can be shared with a larger audience, because the lingua franca of data is SQL not python, and "unfortunately" not DAX.

From my perspective, you do not need to change your working method, but you have to keep an eye on

• resource consumption
• the need to share data assets between teams and/or external users

Hopefully, this helps to make up your mind.

Regards,

Tom