Learn 7 Components of Power BI Architecture Easily now!!

Let's understand first what is Power BI, and how it is useful?

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a software product useful for interactive data visualization developed by Microsoft and works as a major part on business intelligence. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform and a business suite with various technologies that work together and deliver excellent outstanding solutions.

It has some group of components

Before we move to learn the concept, one should know about the architecture. If you are not aware of the architecture of the technology, it won’t be easy to become a master of it. We need to understand how the front end and back end of Power BI work to provide all its unique functionalities and features for data analysis. And later will learn about its components and how it will work further.

First, learn about its components and how it works.

Let’s start and have a Detailed understanding of the concept.

Power Query                 -         For data mash-up and transformation

Power BI Desktop         -         A companion development tool

Power BI Mobile            -        For Android, iOS, and Windows phones

Power Pivot                   -        For in-memory tabular data modeling

Power View                   -        For viewing data visualizations

Power Map                    -        For visualizing 3D geospatial data

Power Q&A                   -        For natural language Q&A)

Power Query: For data mash-up and transformation

In a simple way to make the user tasks smart, a Power BI user can collect the data from various data sources such as files, Azure sources, online services, Direct Query or gateway sources, etc. Then, they work with that data on a client development tool such as Power BI Desktop. Here, the imported data is cleaned & moved according to the user’s requirement.

Once the data is transformed and formatted, it is ready to use in making visualizations in a report. A report is a collection of visualizations like graphs, charts, tables, filters, and slicers.

Moving on to the chain of processes, you can publish the reports created on the Power BI desktop on two kinds of platforms; Power BI Service and Power BI Report Server.

Power BI Service is a cloud-based public platform

Power BI Report Server is an on-premise platform protected by firewall security.

We can create dashboards on these platforms by pinning visualizations from your published reports. Lastly easily, share your dashboards and reports and collaborate with other users from your organization or outside, using delivery options like a web browser, Power BI on iPad, tablets, laptops, phones, etc.

1. Data Sources

An important component of Power BI is its vast range of data sources. You can import data from files in your system, cloud-based online data sources, or connect directly to live connections. If you import from data on-premise or online services there is a limit of 1 GB. Some commonly used data sources in Power BI are:

Excel, Text/CSV, XML, JSON, Oracle Database, IBM DB2 Database, Google Big Query (Beta), Azure SQL Database, Salesforce Reports, Google Analytics, Facebook

GitHub, MySQL Database, and many more.

2. Power BI Desktop  -   A companion development tool

Power BI Desktop is a client-end tool known as a companion development and authoring tool.

This desktop-based software is loaded with tools and functionalities to connect to data sources, transform data, data modeling and create, reports.

You can download and install Power BI Desktop in your system for free. Using Power BI Desktop features, one can do data filtering, create business metrics and data models, define the relationship between data, define hierarchies, create visuals and publish reports.

3. Power BI Service

Power BI Service is a web-based platform from where you can share reports made on Power BI Desktop, coordinate with other users, and create dashboards.

It is available in 3 versions:

1. Free version

2. Pro version

3. Premium version

Power BI Service is also known as, “Power BI.com”, “Power BI Workspace”, “Power BI Site” and “Power BI Web Portal”. This component also offers advanced features like natural language Q & A and alerts.

4. Power BI Report Server

The Power BI Report Server is similar to the Power BI Service. The only difference between these two is that Power BI Report Server is an on-premise platform. It is used by organizations who do not want to publish their reports on the cloud and are concerned about the security of their data.

Power BI Report Server allows you to create dashboards & share your reports with other users following proper security protocols. To use this service, you need to have a Power BI Premium license.

Want to learn more about it? Check out the Power BI Report Server Tutorial

5. Power BI Gateway

This component is used to connect & access on-premise data in secured networks. Power BI Gateways are generally used in organizations where data is kept in security and watch. Gateways help to extract such data through secure channels to Power BI platforms for analysis and reporting.

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6. Power BI Mobile  -  For Android, iOS, and Windows phones

Power BI Mobile is a native Power BI application that runs on iOS, Android, and Windows mobile devices. For viewing reports and dashboards, these applications are used.

7. Power BI Embedded

Power BI Embedded offers APIs which are used to embed visuals into custom applications.