Summary
In this chapter, we have discussed the foundational concepts of the Power BI model. You have learned what makes a Power BI model fundamentally different from other data management products (the in-memory column store) and what the consequences are for what an optimal design looks like.
A good Power BI model has an effective structure with fact tables, filter tables, and relationships between them. Making good design choices when it comes to structure and data types, as well as carefully considering what your data looks like from the perspective of granularity, unique values, and value distribution, leads to a model that performs well. And perhaps more importantly, such a model forms a good basis for rich calculations in DAX.
In the next chapter, we will look at the ways DAX can be used in Power BI models.
