Integrating Power BI with Azure Data Services

Introduction

Hi, I am Khalid Abdelaty a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador, studying Computer Science Student @ Tanta University in Egypt. I am fancisanted by the opportunity of AI and  the ability to analyze and interpret data.

Power BI has seen massive growth in the past couple of years in the IT industry. With the exponential growth of data, employees face challenges in data governance. To manage this unmeasurable data, we need reliable storage solutions. Microsoft Azure facilitates the integration of Power BI with services such as SQL, Stream Analytics, and many others. This combination enhances the ability to work with complex data efficiently.

In this article, we will discuss the following topics:

What Azure services can we connect to Power BI?
Hands-on: Integrate Power BI with Azure
FAQs
Conclusion

What Azure Services Can We Connect to Power BI?

By combining Azure services with Power BI, you can transform data processing efforts into analytics and reports for real-time insights that benefit your business. Azure Power BI has built-in connectivity and integration to develop complex business intelligence solutions without the need for coding.

We can connect the following Azure services with Power BI:

Azure SQL Database
Stream Analytics
Azure ML
Azure Event Hub
Azure Storage
Azure HDInsight

Hands-on: Integrate Power BI with Azure

Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting Azure SQL Database with Power BI:

Go to Azure Portal and click create a resource.

    2. Search for Azure SQL and press enter.

    3. Select the resource type as Single Database and click on create.

   4. Fill in the necessary details such as specifying a resource group, creating a server for the database, then click on review and create and finally click on create.

You will notice that the deployment is in progress. Once the database is deployed, open it.

    5. Now, we will add some data into the SQL database. For that, go to your SQL database and click on query editor. Enter the credentials you set while creating the server for the database.

    6. Let’s add a simple query and run it : 

CREATE TABLE Person (
PersonId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
FirstName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
MiddelInitial NVARCHAR(10),
LastName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
DateOfBirth DATE NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE Student (
StudentId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
PersonId INT REFERENCES Person (PersonId),
Email NVARCHAR(256)
);

CREATE TABLE Course (
CourseId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
Name NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
Teacher NVARCHAR(256) NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE Credit (
StudentId INT REFERENCES Student (StudentId),
CourseId INT REFERENCES Course (CourseId),
Grade DECIMAL(5,2) CHECK (Grade <= 100.00),
Attempt TINYINT,
CONSTRAINT [UQ_studentgrades] UNIQUE CLUSTERED (
StudentId, CourseId, Grade, Attempt
)
);

     7. Next step is to add data to the table. Select the dbo.course table and add rows to it by clicking on Create New Row.

Now we have the data present in the SQL database. Now we will visualize the data in Power BI.

   8. Click on Power BI (preview) option under the Power platform and click on get started, and it will download the pbids file as shown below 

    9. Open the pbi file, and it will open up the Power BI desktop application. It will ask for the username and password under Database. Provide the username and password you set while creating a database server.

As we added some sample values under the course table, preview the data by clicking on course and click on load.

As you can see that we added CourseID, Name, and Teacher rows.

Just check the CourseID, Name, and Teacher. It will create a visualization out of this data. You can choose any visualization from the visualization section, as shown below.

Hence it is a straightforward process to create a visualization using Power BI Integration with Azure.

FAQs

Q1: How does Power BI integrate with Azure?

Ans: Power BI integrates with Azure services to provide real-time business insights through seamless data analytics and reporting.

Q2: Does Power BI work with Azure?

Ans: Yes, Power BI works with Azure to unify data and simplify complex datasets through visualizations.

Q3: What is the use of Power BI embedded in Azure?

Ans: Power BI embedded allows developers to integrate interactive reports and dashboards into applications quickly, transforming data into graphical forms.

Conclusion

Integrating Power BI with Azure provides stability and enhances the ability to handle large data volumes. With easy connectivity and powerful visualizations, users can leverage Azure’s enhanced governance and cataloging capabilities for insightful data analysis.

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