This video introduces Azure Analysis Services: a cloud-based version of SQL Server Analysis Services, which is essentially the same database engine that Power BI uses but available as a separate service. For enterprise Power BI customers there is a difficult decision to make around whether to use Power BI Premium, Azure Analysis Services or both, made more complex by Microsoft’s stated intention to make Power BI Premium a superset of Azure Analysis Services in terms of functionality.
Creation and configuration of an Azure Analysis Services instance takes place in the Azure Portal and requires an Azure subscription. When choosing a service tier you will need to consider how much CPU capacity you will need which is expressed in QPUs, how much memory, and also whether you are using Import mode or DirectQuery mode. Development of Tabular models for Azure Analysis Services takes place in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), although there is also a very basic web-based development environment.
When deciding whether Azure Analysis Services or Power BI Premium is right for your organisation, you need to take into account several factors. First of all, developing in SSDT has some advantages over developing in Power BI Desktop. You also need to consider whether a centralised model such as Azure Analysis Services is a better fit for the way you work than multiple de-centralised models, which is generally how things turn out in a pure Power BI implementation. You also have to consider that Azure Analysis Services places no limits on the size of a model or on how often you can refresh data, and has more sophisticated security functionality. All of this comes at the cost of additional complexity when developing and managing Azure Analysis Services. Also bear in mind that Power BI Premium offers a lot more functionality than Azure Analysis Services, which is just a database.
Finally, pricing for Azure Analysis Services can be difficult to determine because you can scale-up and scale-out on demand, depending on your requirements. You will need to consider what resources you will need and when in order to get an accurate idea of how much Azure Analysis Services will cost.
Purchase this course to learn not only about Azure Analysis Services, but also about the entire Microsoft Power BI.
