Microsoft Fabric in Power BI Embedded : In a significant stride towards enhanced analytics capabilities, Microsoft introduces Microsoft Fabric, an end-to-end unified analytics platform. This release opens up new dimensions for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and application developers using Power BI embedded, enabling them to leverage the advanced capabilities of Microsoft Fabric seamlessly. This blog post will delve into the value proposition of Microsoft Fabric for embedded solutions, explore the integration with Power BI embedded, and guide you on how to get started with this powerful combination.
Understanding Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric stands as a comprehensive analytics platform, unifying data and analytics tools essential for organizations. By integrating technologies like Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI, Fabric empowers both data and business professionals to unlock the full potential of their data. This release signifies a leap forward, laying the foundation for the era of artificial intelligence.
Power BI Embedded: A Brief Overview
Power BI embedded analytics empowers users to embed Power BI items such as reports, dashboards, and tiles directly into web applications or websites. This functionality opens up avenues to deliver compelling data experiences for end-users, enabling them to take actions based on insights derived from solution data. It also facilitates the creation of customer-facing reports, dashboards, and analytics, seamlessly incorporating Power BI branding.
Capacity and SKUs Updates for Power BI Embedded Analytics
Historically, Power BI embedded analytics offered two distinct publishing solutions, each with different SKUs:
- Power BI Embedded (A SKUs): An Azure offering primarily for ISVs and developers.
- Power BI Premium (EM or P SKUs): A Microsoft Office offering that includes embedding Power BI, tailored for enterprises seeking a comprehensive BI solution.
With the introduction of Microsoft Fabric, embedding Power BI is now available with all the new Microsoft Fabric capacities, labeled as F SKUs. These capacities are designed to create and share Fabric content, providing all the necessary capabilities for developers to extract insights from data and present them to business users. The introduction of F SKUs also brings forth additional capabilities:
- Pay-as-you-go: No time commitment, allowing flexibility in usage.
- Scalability: Capacity can be scaled up or down using the Azure portal.
- Pause and Resume: The ability to pause and resume capacity as needed.
These F SKUs present a lower entry level, making them ideal for ISVs and smaller organizations exploring Microsoft Fabric and embedded analytics with Power BI. Meanwhile, higher-level F SKUs enable free users to view shared Power BI items in any workspace with such a capacity assigned to it.
Preview of Microsoft Fabric
During the preview of Microsoft Fabric, users can enjoy the Microsoft Fabric (Preview) trial. This trial includes access to Fabric product experiences and resources to create and host Fabric items. The Fabric Trial, available for 60 days, can be upgraded to a Fabric capacity once the trial concludes. This trial allows users to embed any Power BI item in the workspace, similar to the functionality of A or P SKUs previously.
Power BI Embedded with A SKUs
Power BI embedded continues to seamlessly work with A SKUs, whether Microsoft Fabric is enabled in the organization or not. This implies that users can freely explore Microsoft Fabric in other workspaces while maintaining existing A SKU-assigned workspaces used for embedding. However, it’s essential to note that A SKUs do not support Microsoft Fabric. If you wish to create Fabric items in an A SKU workspace, migration to a Fabric capacity or Fabric Trial is necessary. Additionally, workspaces with Fabric capacities or a Fabric Trial cannot be reassigned to an A SKU.
Git Integration: A New Dimension
An exciting addition accompanying Microsoft Fabric is the integration with Git, allowing developers to seamlessly integrate their development processes, tools, and best practices directly into Microsoft Fabric workspaces. This integration introduces a novel way to manage and control versions of embedded reports. Developers can work in Power BI Desktop to develop reports and datasets, check in changes to Git for collaboration, and sync the content back to the Fabric workspace to ensure everything stays up to date.
Getting Started with Microsoft Fabric
As of now, Microsoft Fabric is in preview. To explore its full capabilities, you can sign up for the free trial without providing any credit card information. The Fabric trial capacity, offered to everyone who signs up, can be used for any feature or capability within Fabric, from integrating data to creating machine learning models. Existing Power BI Premium customers can easily enable Fabric through the Power BI admin portal. After July 1, 2023, Fabric will be automatically enabled for all Power BI tenants.
Other Resources
If you are eager to learn more about Microsoft Fabric, consider:
- Signing up for the Microsoft Fabric free trial.
- Visiting the Microsoft Fabric website.
FAQs Related to Microsoft Fabric in Power BI Embedded
- Q: What is Microsoft Fabric’s role in the era of AI?
- A: Microsoft Fabric serves as an end-to-end unified analytics platform that integrates data and analytics tools, laying the foundation for organizations to unlock the potential of their data in the era of artificial intelligence.
- Q: Can existing Power BI Premium customers enable Microsoft Fabric?
- A: Yes, existing Power BI Premium customers can easily enable Microsoft Fabric through the Power BI admin portal.
- Q: How long is the Microsoft Fabric (Preview) trial available, and what does it include?
- A: The Microsoft Fabric (Preview) trial is available for 60 days and includes access to Fabric product experiences and resources to create and host Fabric items.
- Q: Can Power BI embedded with A SKUs be used in conjunction with Microsoft Fabric?
- A: Yes, Power BI embedded with A SKUs can continue to work seamlessly with Microsoft Fabric, allowing users to explore Fabric in other workspaces while maintaining existing A SKU-assigned workspaces for embedding.
- Q: What are the additional capabilities of Microsoft Fabric capacities (F SKUs)?
- A: Microsoft Fabric capacities (F SKUs) offer pay-as-you-go flexibility with no time commitment, scalability through the Azure portal, and the ability to pause and resume capacity as needed.
Conclusion
The integration of Microsoft Fabric into Power BI embedded marks a significant advancement, providing developers and ISVs with enhanced capabilities for analytics and data visualization. Whether you are exploring the trial version or planning to leverage Microsoft Fabric capacities, this comprehensive guide equips you with the knowledge to get started on your journey towards unlocking the full potential of Microsoft Fabric and Power BI embedded.
Sign up for the free trial. Dive into the era of advanced analytics with Microsoft Fabric!