How To Connect Power BI to Azure?- A Guide for Connecting and Analyzing Data

Updated 18 Jul 2023
Published 13 Jul 2023
Nancy Bhargava 2533 Views
Power BI to Azure

Over the past few years, Power BI has sharply increased in popularity in the information technology sector. Employees need help with data governance due to the exponential growth of data. We require a location to store this infinite amount of data to operate with it.

The Power BI integration services with a wide range of other Azure services, including stream analytics, SQL, and much more, are supported by Microsoft Azure as a direct result of this. This is an excellent match to use with Microsoft Azure Power Bi to handle complex data.

What is Power BI?

A technology-driven business intelligence tool provided by Microsoft is called Power BI. It analyzes and depicts unprocessed data to provide actionable information. Business analytics, data visualization, and best practices are used in combination to help a company make data-driven choices.

What is Power BI

In February 2019, Gartner declared Microsoft to be the Leader in the “2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platform” due to the capabilities of the Power BI platform.

Diverse business analytics are offered by the Microsoft Power BI service. You can use its capabilities to create a custom Power BI dashboard and reports if you want a deeper grasp of your data. In addition, Power BI offers special visualization choices because of its own software development kit (SDK).

With the aid of Power BI, a tool for data visualization and business intelligence, information that has been acquired from a broad variety of sources is combined in order to create BI reports and dashboards.

  • The SaaS-based Power BI service.
  • Mobile Power BI apps.
  • The Power BI desktop program works across several platforms.

Access to a number of services, including data transformation, publication, and personalized visualization, is available with Desktop Power BI’s free version.

Customers who purchase this bundle get access to a wide range of resources, including goods, contacts, and services. These services are used by clients in the business world to gather data and provide reports for business intelligence.

Users of Power BI can create visually appealing and interactive visualizations using the desktop program that it uses to construct reports. When these reports are published utilizing the Software as a Service (SaaS) platform known as Power BI Services, users are then given the option to securely share and collaborate on their accounts.

Customers have a handy way to access and study these reports when they are on the go thanks to the Power BI mobile app. Additionally, this software gives users the flexibility to stay connected and analyze their data anytime and wherever they choose.

The monthly cost for Power BI Pro is $9.99 per user. However, the monthly fee for Power BI Premium on a dedicated cloud is $4,995.

Hire Power BI Developers to connect power to azure

What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure is an excellent cloud-based solution that aids businesses in effectively addressing their operational challenges. An individual possessing Azure administration certification has the expertise to develop, oversee, and organize your applications within the Azure platform.

What is Microsoft Azure

Azure supports many frameworks and programming languages, ensuring compatibility with diverse software environments. Moreover, Azure prioritizes the secure backup and protection of your valuable data, guaranteeing its confidentiality and integrity.

Customers can use Microsoft’s data centers to create and administer applications on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. Thanks to it, customers can take part in agile cloud computing models. Microsoft Azure is the best public cloud service because of its quick, adaptable, and affordable platform.

By using the tools offered on the platform, you may significantly improve the performance of your IT operations. Even the official guidance can occasionally be challenging and messy to grasp due to Azure’s flexibility. Microsoft’s cloud computing platform runs on an operating system called Azure, formerly Windows Azure.

Read more: The Benefits of Power BI for Revolutionizing Industries

Applications of Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft promotes Azure as an open and customizable cloud platform that enables customers to quickly create, maintain, and deploy applications across a worldwide network of data centers. The company’s website has this information.

Applications of Microsoft Azure

Software applications can be developed using a variety of tools, frameworks, and programming languages. Additionally, you can link your current information technology infrastructure with apps hosted in public clouds.

Microsoft Azure uses pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pricing, which means that customers only pay for the resources and services that they actually use, and they only receive a monthly bill that reflects this.

How Does the Microsoft Azure Platform Operate?

All of the services made available through the Azure interface are instantly accessible to customers who subscribe to Azure. Subscribers can make use of these services to produce cloud-based resources like databases and virtual machines (VMs). After that, Azure’s services and resources can be utilized as building blocks to create running environments that host workloads and store data.

How Microsoft Azure Platform operate

Several third-party businesses make their software immediately accessible via Azure and the services that Microsoft makes available via the Azure portal.

Although there is a broad range of variations in the price invoiced for third-party applications, it is conceivable to be charged a usage fee for the infrastructure that hosts the program and a subscription price for the application.

Azure Consulting and Development Services can help you cope with your business technology issues and will help you build a better web platform.

How Far is Microsoft Azure Ahead of the Technology Curve?

Microsoft Azure includes modern machine learning framework tools and aids in creating its own AI services. Machine learning entails running the data through models that have already been created.

Users may complete the manual tasks swiftly and without making any mistakes. Automating previously laborious operations enables people to finish more jobs in the same amount of time. The primary functions are doing calculations on data and executing instructions without relying on the server’s resources.

How Far is Microsoft Azure Ahead of the Technology Curve

You can clean, transform, and merge data on the cloud as needed. Additionally, it gives you the option to make reports for various users.

  • Power BI & Azure Integration

Connecting Microsoft Azure to Power BI allows you to transform your data processing endeavors into dynamic reports and analytics, offering immediate data analysis into your business operations.

Regardless of the nature of your data processing—be it cloud-based or on-premises, simple or intricate, sourced from a single location or scaled massively, stored in a data warehouse or generated in real-time—Power BI and Azure provide seamless integration and connectivity, empowering your Data-driven projects to thrive.

Together, these robust solutions breathe life into your data, enabling you to unlock valuable insights and make data-driven decisions that drive your organization forward.

Power BI users can connect to various Azure services and business intelligence measures that can be tailored to satisfy the unique needs of any enterprise. Then, you may shape and change the data to design customized reports.

You can begin by connecting directly to the Azure SQL Database to Power Bi and create reports from there to keep tabs on your business growth. Using the Power BI Desktop, organizations can generate reports that reveal trends and key success indicators that advance your company.

Power BI & Azure

  • Your Cloud-stored Data Can be Combined, Shaped, & Transformed

Accessing complex data from multiple sources is a breeze with Power BI’s seamless integration with Azure services. Navigate to the “Get Data” box in Power BI Desktop, and you’ll find the appropriate option to establish connections effortlessly.

The same query can handle it all if you need to connect to your Azure HDInsight, Azure SQL Database, Azure Table Storage, or Azure Blob Storage. Select the specific subsets you require from each dataset, and then quickly refine and analyze the data to extract valuable insights.

Applying the same data linkages and queries, you can create reports tailored to a certain audience’s requirements. Design a new report page, modify your visuals to fit the needs of every audience, and then observe how the business is kept informed.

Your Cloud-stored Data Can be Combined, Shaped, & Transformed

  • Microsoft SQL Database

With Power BI Azure integration, your growth potential is virtually endless. Create business intelligence reports that will give your organization an advantage by combining the data from your numerous SaaS services with massive real-time systems, multi-source data processing, Event Hubs, and Stream Analytics.

Before being delivered to Power BI for presentation, the incoming data is revealed to have been processed by Azure SQL Database, Stream Analytics, and other Azure services.

Microsoft SQL Database

  • Analytical Insights into Context with Microsoft Power BI

To maximize your company’s data, you can include aesthetically appealing and interactive data visualizations in applications, websites, and other platforms. You can easily embed interactive reports and dashboards because Power BI Embedded is a resource on Azure.

This allows your consumers to have high-fidelity, consistent experiences regardless of their device. Embedded analytics and Power BI work together to provide a product that could help you get from data to knowledge to insights to actions. Adding analytics to your company’s internal applications and portals can further boost the value of Power BI and Azure.

To highlight the importance of your company’s data, incorporate stunning, dynamic data visualizations into applications, websites, portals, and other digital platforms. You can quickly generate reports and dashboards with Power BI Embedded on Azure, giving your users consistent and high-fidelity experiences regardless of their device.

Why Should Power BI & Azure be Connected?

You may utilize the data from your business by incorporating aesthetically pleasing and dynamic data visualizations into several applications, websites, and portals using Azure and Power BI. You may include interactive reports and dashboards if you use Power BI Embedded as a resource on Azure. Despite the device they are using, this will give your users a seamless and high-fidelity experience.

Power BI & Azure be Connected

You may hasten the transition of your business from “Data” to “Knowledge” to “Insights” to “Actions” by incorporating analytics into your Power BI reports. Integrating analytics into your company’s internal apps and portals can also boost the usefulness of Power BI and Azure.

Power BI Azure integration into a wide range of use cases; the potential and options are as specific to your company as they are to one another. You will get the knowledge essential to convert the data sources into valuable insights that can improve your business.

Also, Power BI Connector and Microsoft Azure integration provide a powerful combination of tools and services that enable organizations to harness the full potential of their data.

How to Connect Power BI to Azure?

Step-by-step directions for linking Azure to Power BI:

  1. Select the Azure Analysis Services database from the Desktop Power BI Get Data option to access it.
  2. Enter the server’s name in the Server box. Include the entire URL, for instance, as “azure://west central us.azure.windows.net/advworks.”
  3. If you already know the name of the Database or viewpoint for a tabular model that you like to connect to, copy it and paste it into the relevant column under the Database. If not, you can exclude this field from the form and select a perspective or Database afterward.
  4. Press the Connect button after selecting your preferred connection type.

Both the Import options and Connect Live are supported. As the Import mode has some limitations, it is advised to use live connections. The server’s performance may be impacted while the import is happening, which is the most important of these limitations.

When your Power BI model is configured with Mixed storage mode, the Connect Live option is replaced by the DirectQuery option. Additionally, if you convert the model from Import to Mixed storage mode, live connections are automatically upgraded to DirectQuery without extra charges.

  1. After entering your credentials, choose Microsoft account from the drop-down menu that displays, and then hit the Sign in button. The most fundamental level and Windows authentication are not supported.
  2. By opening the server in the Navigator, choosing the perspective or model you like to connect to, and then clicking the Connect button, you can connect to a viewpoint or model. All objects pertinent to that perspective will be shown by clicking on a model or perspective.

The Report view in the Desktop version of Power BI will initially show a blank report when you open the model. The Fields lists all the model items that are not concealed. The connection status is showcased in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Users can access and assist with the Connect Live and Import options. We advise using live connections instead of Import mode because it does have some drawbacks, chief among which is the possibility that Import mode may affect server performance.

Read more: Why Connect Microsoft Power BI with Shopify Plus

Examples of Use Cases for Power BI with Microsoft Azure

Let’s discuss how Power BI and Microsoft Azure are used in the real world:

Examples of Use Cases for Power BI with Microsoft Azure

1. The Ontario University

Regarding institutional research, Ontario University is the most esteemed in Canada and sets the standard globally. It managed to avoid paying exorbitant hardware repair expenses by using Microsoft Azure.

The Ontario University

The business moved a portion of its operations to a Microsoft Azure-hosted cloud. It also allowed the university to modify its IT processes while also considering minimizing the time spent on those processes.

2. AkzoNobel

The well-known Dutch producer AkzoNobel currently occupies the top spot in the world market for paints & coatings. It sells its goods and services in more than a hundred nations.

AkzoNobel 2023

Thus, it is constantly in need of better global connectivity. It accomplished this by utilizing the worldwide performance and connection enhancements offered by Microsoft Azure’s Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

3. Intercontinental Hotel Group

This hotel chain is a part of the elite and prestigious group of global hotel chains. It serves clients across over a hundred countries and boasts a global presence with approximately 5200 properties worldwide.

Intercontinental Hotel Group

They own 5200 properties, which shows how seriously the business is committed to giving customers outstanding service. Indicators include the quantity of testing required to meet market expectations and the testing necessary to achieve those goals.

The significant investment reinforces this company’s assertion in innovations to deliver the level of service customers anticipate from the organization.

4. Dashboards for Reporting in the Financial Sector

The production of revenue and earnings is likely your firm’s leading key performance indicator (KPI), regardless of the industry in which you work. It is challenging and complicated to keep track of one’s expenses when utilizing Excel spreadsheets or log books that span an extended period.

Dashboards for Reporting in the Financial Sector

You will ultimately lose track of your actions as you manually change the cell numbers. As a result, firms in the modern world have shifted to utilizing the potent data visualization tool Power BI.

5. Resource Administration

Clients like consumer electronics manufacturers with numerous device manufacturing and production facilities across several nations need business solutions to help them out in daily processes.

They were looking for a customized BI dashboard to assign tasks and allocate resources effectively. Power BI offers powerful visualization features, and such companies were advised to use Power BI instead of the usual SSRS reports because it has powerful visualization features. The reports can be created using Excel’s Power Pivot and Power Query features.

6. Sales Scorecard

Using the Sales Scorecard, we can help people track their businesses’ health in several ways. The Power BI dashboard or scorecard gives the sales staff a broad overview of what happened with the company the day before and how things are generally done.

Using the Sales Scorecard, we can help people track their businesses’ health in several ways. The dashboard or scorecard gives the sales staff a broad overview of the events with the company the day before and how things are generally done.

Connect Power BI to Azure today and start unlocking the power of cloud data analytics

Conclusion

A completely new level of reliability to manage more data is delivered by joining Power BI to Azure. Not only can we easily connect to Azure services, but we can also quickly create compelling visualizations. Users can access enhanced governance and cataloging features when storing data in Azure. They can also quickly understand a great deal of information by using graphics.

You can read the blog to better understand Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Azure, and the procedures needed to connect Power BI to Azure. Pre-built connections in Power BI are designed expressly for the Azure data.

This blog will be helpful to you in enhancing your understanding of PowerBI’s interface with Azure if, on the other hand, you wish to merge data received from several sources before doing an analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is the list of FAQs related to Integrating Power BI and Azure:

  • Do Power BI and Azure Work Together?

    Power BI can unify your data and does so in conjunction with Azure. It simplifies the complex nature of the data and makes it simpler to understand by using graphs and other representations. As a result, Azure Power BI is an excellent tool for efficiently managing large amounts of data.

  • How Precisely Do Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Azure Integrate?

    On Azure Power BI integration, you can refocus your efforts on data processing analytics and reporting, giving you access to real-time insights to help your business grow. To generate customized reports and dashboards, you can connect to one or more data sources hosted on Azure, shape the data, and make changes.

  • What Advantages Do Existing Power BI Installations in Azure Provide?

    App developers can swiftly incorporate excellent, eye-catching, interactive reports and dashboards into their applications using Microsoft Power BI Embedded in Azure. App developers can use this feature to alter the graphical representations and visualizations of the data in the files to give the data different appearances.

Nancy Bhargava

Nancy works as an IT consulting professional with Arka Softwares. She has an in-depth knowledge of trending tech and consumer affairs. She loves to put her observations and insights of the industry to reveal interesting stories prompting the latest domain practice and trends.

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