Power BI Weekly

Issue #217 - 25th July 2023

This week we've been presented with one primary announcement, which is the Public Preview of automatic replica synchronization for Dataset Scale-Out, which means that copies of your dataset can be kept automatically in sync with one another rather than having to refresh the copies. They've also made the configuration easier to access - exposing it via the REST API rather than the XMLA endpoint. The other announcement this week is the formality of the On-premises data gateway July 2023 release - this includes a single net-new piece of functionality which is the added support for Lakehouse connectivity over the gateway. Other than the official Power BI content this week, Reid Havens has shared a useful video describing Configuring Fields with Perspectives for Shared Datasets in Power BI (quite an under-utilized feature in Power BI).

I wanted to point out a non Power BI-specific blog from my colleague James this week, but I urge you all to read it - it discusses the importance of using Architecture Decision Records to capture decisions made during projects. Usually these are technical decisions (like "Should I use dynamic or static RLS?" or "Should I use DirectQuery, Import or DirectLake mode?"), but not necessarily. The idea is that point-in-time decisions like this, if not captured, can seem arbitrary if reflected on in the future. Writing down the options, weighing things up, and sharing with your colleagues for discussion is critical for ensuring the decision being made is accepted by a consensus and generally has the most chance of succeeding. Anyway, do take a read - they provide a huge amount of value to us here at endjin.

Finally, we've published the final episode of our interview with Tom that I've shared in the last couple of editions - check out the new episode: Microsoft Fabric and The Pace of Innovation - The Decision Maker's Guide - Part 3. If you've been enjoying these videos, we'll have more episodes in the "Decision Maker's Guide" series in the future, so stay tuned. And I wanted to say thank you to Matthew Roche who's flattered us with a shout-out in his blog My Favorite YouTube channel for Microsoft Fabric - his blog has been a hub for strategy-focused data content over the last few years, so very pleased to receive kind words from him. Do take a look at his past posts - you'll see what I mean!