Optimization for Storage Modes

With the proliferation of data lakes, more options are available for performance improvements with DirectQuery and Direct Lake. Synapse has brought Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) from big data to analytical databases. DirectQuery can use the column store indexes in Synapse or other cloud database systems. The use of aggregations with DirectQuery external data sources has become a common choice for large fact tables. There are optimizations that can be done in both Power BI and external sources to avoid hitting limits too quickly.

In the previous chapter, we looked at ways to get performance and usage information from the Power BI service through reports and logs. Through the usage metrics report and some template apps, Microsoft provides tools for analyzing performance data. For Power BI reports, we often need to know whether visuals, queries, or combinations thereof are slow. Page view granularity isn’t available from the Power BI service...