Learn About Power BI Datamarts

Power BI Datamarts was first announced during Microsoft Build 2022. Datamarts are an exciting new feature available to preview and enable self-service users to build and distribute an analytical solution from end to end.

This includes data ingestion, preparation, exploration, analysis, data modelling, and report design which can all be completed in Power BI Service – crucially with little or no coding.

What is Power BI?

Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence) is used to find insights into an organisation’s data.

Power BI can connect to data sets from multiple sources, transform and clean the data into a data model and create interactive visualisations that bring the organisation’s data to life.

The data can then be easily sliced and diced by the user to find new insights.

What is a Data Mart?

A data mart is a subject-specific data warehouse, often containing data related to one domain or line of business within an organisation.

A data warehouse can have complex structures, such as slowly changing dimensions which are not simple for business users.

A data mart, however, is a more focused and friendly set of data that business users can understand and use.

Power BI Datamarts

Power BI Premium users can create datamarts that firmly put the power in their hands.

Instead of waiting for other data teams members like Database Administrators, Data Engineers and Data Analysts to assist, these business users can use Power Query to load data from multiple sources into the Power BI Datamart.

Behind the scenes, the data mart is an automatically provisioned Azure SQL database. Once the data is loaded, the user can define relationships, write measures, and protect the data with Row-Level Security roles.

Use cases for Power BI Datamarts

• When you do not want to change the enterprise data warehouse but must add additional data, e.g., for forecasting.
• When you want to manipulate data visually or through expressions defined in SQL.
• For outputs that are results, sets, tables, and filtered data tables.
• Provide accessible data through a SQL endpoint.
• Enable users who don’t have access to Power BI Desktop.

Digital Samurai Thoughts

The Digital Samurai team are excited by the potential of Power BI Datamarts, and we’d love to hear your thoughts too.

We are always excited by new technologies that mean you can do more with less, especially where you can empower business users and give them the ability to use their data more simply and powerfully.

They don’t call it Power BI for anything! Please get in touch with the Digital Samurai team today to discuss how Power BI Datamarts can be used successfully in your organisation.