Summary

In this chapter, we looked at a number of topics related to connecting to and querying data with Power BI. We reviewed some of the popular data sources that are supported by Power BI and how queries to those data sources can be DirectQuery or Import, and how those sources can even be located on-premises. It's very important that Power BI supports as many data sources as possible so organizations can spend more time querying data and using it to answer business questions and less time moving data to a supported data store.

We also learned how Power BI supports the creation of composite data models that use both DirectQuery and Import data. Composite models help enable many new use cases, including performance optimization in some scenarios. We learned how Power BI uses the concept of a dataset to store connection information to a data source and how that connection information can be shared using a PBIDS file that can be shared across an organization to help make getting...