Power BI Dataflows - Sorting Through Fact and Fiction

What do you know about dataflows in Power BI and why they matter? In a recent webinar, Erin Ostrowsky, sorts through fact vs fiction about dataflows in Power BI. She discusses dataflow’s main purpose(s), features, opportunities and limitations.

She starts the presentation with discussing the problems with self-service BI, in this case specifically with Power BI, and how dataflows solve these problems by bridging the data prep gap. ETL work can be very time consuming and there’s a need for standardized ETL in the self-service BI process, as well as a need for a greater extension of data capabilities like machine learning and AI.

Dataflows are geared towards citizen developers but with them we can pull in the enterprise and IT developer side of the house to build unity in the efforts taking place. Many people can use dataflows; if you have access to the workspace, you have access to the dataflows so you can leverage it as it’s a reusable data source. Erin goes into the strategy of who you want working with or owning dataflows – creation vs consumption.

Other areas discussed are:

• The common data model
• What is a CDM-compliant folder
• What are entities

This webinar includes a step by step demo of creating and using a data flow in the Power BI service. Erin also delves into FAQs such as:

• Do I still need a data warehouse if I use dataflows?
• Do I need dataflows if I already have a data warehouse?
• Do dataflows replace Azure Data Factory?

So, if you’re interested in learning more about leveraging dataflows within Power BI, this webinar is for you. You can watch the complete webinar below. To view the presentation slides, click here. Erin will help you sort through fact vs fiction when it comes to dataflows.

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