Utilizing Hybrid Tables

Hybrid tables in semantic models leverage both import and DirectQuery connectivity methods by taking advantage of the concept of partitions within Analysis Services tabular semantic models. Partitions are simply logical containers of rows within a single semantic model table. These partitions are also used with incremental refresh, with each incremental refresh creating a new partition within the table.

Hybrid tables are a Power BI Premium feature and can be used in conjunction with incremental refresh or separately. Hybrid tables are designed to strike a balance in performance between import and DirectQuery for large fact tables. In effect, a hybrid table can have an import storage mode partition that contains the most recent data (such as the last two years) and a DirectQuery partition that contains older data or vice versa.

Such configurations can speed up the most common data analysis tasks (assuming that the data of most interest is within the...