Exploring the Power BI

Datamarts!
Marcus Wegener
"Power BI⚡Ranger for your data expedition"
Sources of knowledge
„Power BI datamarts is realy about self-
service data analytics.
So it’s this idea of bridging the gap between
the business user and IT, when it comes to
databases.“
Guy in a Cube
 „Power BI datamarts are like
dataflows with benefits.“
Matthew Roche

https://ssbipolar.com/2022/05/25/dataflows-with-benefits/
„Datamarts is a fully managed SaaS
Service. No code required to do an
end-to-end analytics project.“

Kasper de Jonge

https://youtu.be/nsxeKPgUABs
 The gap filled by Self-Service BI
Data Warehousing
and Enterprise BI

Self-Service BI
Excel-based
„Gut feeling“ reporting
Expert opinions

Gap

Business IT

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/datakoenigartur_powerbi-bi-agile-activity-6888803902095925248-zYpo/
 Datamart, Database, Datamart
Data Warehouse, Data Lake? Specialized subset of data
(Specialist Store)

Raw data
Structured & unstructed data
(Raw materials)
Data Warehouse
Data Factory Structured & centralized data
Control of data preparation (Warehouse) Dataflows
(Factory) Prepare subsets of data Database
(Data palettes ) (Store space)
Tables
(Retail shelves)
Data Pipelines
Data movement & preparation
(Pipelines)

Data Lakes
Mass storage of data
(Silos)

Other Sources
(Special goods)

https://youtu.be/CAZlaiq24S0
https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/business-applications-release-notes/april19/cdm-data-integration/common-data-model-cdm
 Dataflow
Benefits:
• reusable ETL packages
• decoupling data source
• different schedules
Logs, files and media • Incremental refersh
Storage SQL Cache Store
(unstructured)
• Azure Data Lake (CDM)
Power Query
• Machine Learning capabilities
Online

Azure Data Lake Enhanced

Storage Gen2 Compute Premium Features:
Engine
• Enhanced compute engine
• Direct Query
{ } ,
• Computed entities
json
model.json
csv
Machine • Linked entites
Business/custom apps Data *.csv Learning
(structured) • Incremental refresh
 Datamart
Benefits:
• better performance
• web authoring
Logs, files and media Relationships
• 100 GB storage
• SQL connections
Storage
(unstructured) Measures

Power Query
• Row Level Security
DirectQuery
Online
• B2B sharing
Azure Data Lake Azure SQL Dataset
Storage Gen2 Database

Row Level
Security

{ }
json
Business/custom apps model.json
(structured)
Please note that this is a preview,
so the features may be incomplete
or change in the future!
 Considerations and limitations
The following limitations should be considered when using datamarts:
• Datamarts are only available in Premium Gen 2 workspaces.
• Datamarts are not currently supported in Power BI embedded.
• Datamarts are not available in workspaces that are bound to an Azure Data Lake Gen2 storage account.
• Datamart extract, transform and load (ETL) operations can currently only run for up to 24 hours
• Datamarts currently officially support data volumes of up to 100 GB.
• Currently datamarts don’t support the currency data type, and such data types will be converted to float.
• Data sources behind a VNET or using private links can't currently be used with datamarts; to work around this limitation you can use an on-
premises data gateway.
• Datamarts only support Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and do not support managed identities or service principals at this time.
• Datamarts are currently not supported in Microsoft Teams.
• Datamarts currently support the following SQL clients:
• SSMS
• Azure Data Studio
• Datamarts aren't currently available in the following Azure regions:
• Sweden Central and South
• West India
• UAE Central
• Japan West
• Datamarts are supported in all other Azure regions.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/datamarts/datamarts-administration#considerations-and-limitations
• No Measure result view
• No Calculated Tables
• No Calculated Columns
• No dynamic DAX RLS
• No „View as“ User
Links
• CURBAL – What is a datamart? Compared with data lakes, data warehouses & databases
• Matthew Roche – Dataflows with benefits
• Kasper On BI - What is Power BI Datamarts?
• Guy in a Cube – Exploring the preview of datamart in Power BI!
• Guy in a Cube – Power BI dataflows vs datamarts: What’s the difference???
• RADACAD – Power BI Datamart – What is it and Why You Should Use it
• RADACAD – Getting Started with Power BI Datamart
• RADACAD – Power BI Datamart components
• RADACAD – Power BI Datamart Integration in the Power BI Ecosystem
• Marc Lelijveld – Power BI Datamarts What is it and how do I benefit from it?
• Greg Nash – A first look at Power BI Datamarts
• Microsoft Mechanics – Datamarts in Power BI
Thank you