All this Microsoft Fabric... What about Power BI?

Everyone is talking about Microsoft Fabric. What about Power BI? What if all you want to do is Power BI? BUT! Is it an OR or is it an AND? Adam digs into where Power BI is and how to think about it.
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[@lopypop]

Thanks for taking the time to make this video, Adam. This topic is still sorely needed! I'm a PM at a large enterprise with many Premium capacities and a full dedicated MSFT support team and I still don't understand Fabric after having 5+ meetings with them. They like to use vague sales demos instead of having any appreciation for the persona type of someone grounded in Power BI centric thinking. I'm someone with budget asking them to help me understand what Fabric can do for me as someone with a mature portfolio of products in Power BI and they end up pitching Power Platform, Real Time Analytics, a LOT of flashy AI stuff, and vague promises of Fabric capacity "likely" costing less than Premium. All I want is for them to tell me how switching to a Fabric SKU will improve my Power BI product experience, but they don't stop to understand our history with their products and current use cases. Overall, I think the idea of Fabric being an all-in-one solution is a good thing, but the sales teams have been incentivized to sell us on why we need all this other stuff instead of remembering that many groups still get a lot of value out of OG Power BI.

[@GuyInACube]

It is frustrating when you can't get the answers you need to make a business decision. Hopefully this video helps. Will also add that a P1 is and F64. I should do something bc that dives into that. And should update the pricing video. Reality is that Power BI Premium is going away so you will have to migrate to F SKU at some point. From a technical side there are some things that won’t work on a P SKU such as the trusted workspace access feature for ADLS storage access.

[@badarmuhammad6272]

3:14 Thanks, Adam. This is good news because the company only subscribing the PBI capacity and we want to expand it into Fabric. Now I can see that on premium capacity, we can also use another Fabric's products. "Fabric is the evolution of PBI" -> these words also convince me that we should just enjoy and learn on what the Fabric can offer, without any concern about the current PBI process.

[@Milhouse77BS]

TMDL view SO useful. Used it to remove underscores from measures semi-manually. Yea.

[@qwerty2582]

I don't like being this guy, but my environment is in GCC. I'm so excited for Fabric, and I'm building excitement for it in my organization, but with no documented roadmap for it, we're just left wondering when it would appear - as we are with many features (could be tomorrow, could be next year, could be never). I know it's a process, but I wish the communication was clearer. Thanks for all of your great work, but we also need a GCC version of GIAC now to keep us posted on what's rolling out when 😊

[@DFK_data]

Thanks! The content was really helpful.

[@Alan.DL7]

I've noticed a growing trend of Microsoft employees or affiliates creating content aimed at reassuring users that Power BI remains a priority and hasn’t been overshadowed by Fabric. However, the reality is clear: Microsoft is aware of the concerns and dissatisfaction surrounding Fabric and how it’s being aggressively promoted, despite not being necessary for everyone. If Microsoft truly hears the feedback from its users, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate the approach rather than trying to convince us otherwise. Forcing Fabric onto users who don’t need it is not only frustrating but also creating unnecessary limitations for those who rely on Power BI. To make matters worse, the pricing model is prohibitively expensive, further alienating a segment of your loyal user base. Instead of doubling down on defending current decisions, Microsoft should take a step back, listen to the voices of its community, and ensure that Power BI remains accessible, flexible, and focused on the needs of all users, not just those who might benefit from Fabric.

[@jamespurcell3751]

welcome to entshitification

[@DesertObserver491]

@@Alan.DL7 Agreed. PBI is smthg regular office users can use. Fabric is smthg for IT teams only (backend big data stuff) or advanced developers. Keep the deliveries to the respective audience. Because of all this Fabric stuff, right now I see PBI being bundled away from a user tool to be developed and handled by IT only. That's hugely disappointing.

[@KedrosAnalytics]

A client I currently work with wants to migrate their Lakehouse into Fabric, so I've been working with them & other colleagues on the data Lakehouses and pipelines features of Fabric as well. They remind me of Data Fabric and Azure Synapse Analytics. It would also be good for companies who already use Power BI and want to extend their analytical architecture with Data Engineering capabilities I guess.

[@Tony-dp1rl]

I recommend looking at other options in the market, PowerBI is like driving a 1950's car compared to some of the other options available now for equal or less money. Sure, it works, but it is slow and has a massive turning circle.

[@jamespurcell3751]

for example?

[@joebateman9668]

I am far from a full technical user but I can find my way around fabric well enough. I fact loving the new SQL DB feature. However, one thing I have struggled to understand is one lake, and how to get data source file in there which are received via email. Currently have a power automate to SharePoint to data flow set up.

[@RogerWeb10]

Just me or FAbric is a bloody "Fabric" of taking your money.... any serious usage of it just keeps adding costs! I'm not enjoying it. I'm going back to Azure.

[@Milhouse77BS]

Yea, Workspace on top makes sense, so took me a second to redo d it 😅

[@MrSparkefrostie]

4:03, the business problem you are trying to achieve 😂, that had me laughing, apologies for being pedantic. Missed the live stream, should be in this weekend

[@kangasoftware8008]

Currently, if connecting Excel to a PBI Model via XMLA, the model requires explicit measures to work and yet Copilot in PBI requires implicit measures. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Would love to hear your thoughts on how/when that can be resolved.

[@latishshelukar8906]

Hi, I have one use case for my project. I need semantic model refresh history in a report. After some analysis, I found rest api 'Get Refresh History in Group'. But how can we create report using this? In short, how to integrate it with Power BI. There is some Power BI Automate solution for this. But I am not able to get it. Can you create one video on this if possible, that will be helpful.

[@helloranjan89]

@@latishshelukar8906 you can read from a dataset having refresh history, your tenant admin would know and has to allow you to connect

[@xXDUSC8Xx]

@@latishshelukar8906 not sure if this is any help but we ingested pbi api data into a fabric lakehouse using dataflows. You can leverage the lakehouse sql end point to create views on top of the tables your create from ingestion. The lakehouse can run on an automated refresh schedule, similar to a semantic model. You can then use these objects downstream in a pbi report.

[@ChuckJacobson]

If I accidentally click on anything I don't have access to under Power BI Pro, like Fabric stuff, then I automatically start a Fabric trial (no warning). I think I switched back to Pro, but the Fabric trial is still running. :(

[@rwlpfrench]

I've been Power BI since the beginning (Excel add in days). Always will be Power BI. We have used Fabric capabilities to enhance what we do with Power BI and its 🤯. Power BI will be my first 🧡

[@cptdeadeye2112]

What Fabric capabilities have you used to improve the PBI experience? Asking as a BI developer who's yet to explore the Fabric features.

[@ScottJShearer]

Thank you! You can still be one of the cool kids if you focus on Power BI!

[@ronnyandronico8989]

Was this not clear to most? The only real major Fabric component that is “non-powerbi” or a component that directly affects Power BI is P SKUs vs F SKUs. Not sure why all the hub-bub on LinkedIn about wanting Power BI back. Very unclear to me where the confusion is. Power BI was always an Azure product under the covers. But thanks for spreading the word as always Guy in a Cube!

[@martynsharp5936]

When will Copilot be available in PowerBI embedded? Or will it ever be possible? Seems like a huge oversight as many people embed dashboards into applications

[@daddogsdata]

@@martynsharp5936 coming soon you will be able to separate your Copilot workloads in a separate capacity. I am not 100% sure if that means you can get copilot without fabric capacity but it might be a purchasable separate purchase.

[@JohnAdair-k7j]

I have no need for Fabric. I'm very happy with PBI.

[@keagankemp6275]

I am soooo lost with Microsoft Fabric, given the capabilities I think it’s time for me to make this a project

[@GuyInACube]

Doing a project in it is the best way to learn and explore. It takes time if it’s net new.

[@DesertObserver491]

PowerBI is smthg regular office users can use. Fabric is smthg for IT teams only or advanced developers (big backend data). Fabric needs to be marketed to IT for bringing big data together but PowerBI is for business teams to build reports using that data. Today report building is going towards the IT teams responsibility but they are not the best people to build the report as they don't understand it, they're mainly good for bringing the data together. And talking Fabric in the same vein as PowerBI like in this video (sorry) alienates long time PBI report builders like me.

[@martiruda]

My theory is that the world went into a inflation hypercycle because of the cost of Azure and AWS.

[@dahayes213]

Just don’t get rid of PPU licensing!

[@workstuff5253]

I'm just a PBI Pro scrub.

[@UlyssesHaq]

it's a case of "eat your gruel" 🥹 for pro users, MSFT wants to maintain the two-tier society 😐

[@thenoobinvestor1220]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[@douglascory]

I just wish Direct Lake would work with Power BI Embedded, 'sigh'