Power BI Report Server

The Power BI team announce a new version of Power BI Report Server. This product facilitates the distribution of interactive Power BI reports, traditionally within the boundaries of an organisation’s firewall. It’s not available to be purchased; the rights to install and use it are granted for customers who have active SA on SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or Server Subscriptions for SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or who have purchased Power BI Premium P SKUs.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3sZad3Y.

Power BI Report Server

The Power BI team announce a new version of Power BI Report Server.

This product facilitates the distribution of interactive Power BI reports, traditionally within the boundaries of an organisation’s firewall. It’s not available to be purchased; the rights to install and use it are granted for customers who have active SA on SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or Server Subscriptions for SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or who have purchased Power BI Premium P SKUs.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3o0MRsd.

Power BI Premium per User

Microsoft announce that Power BI Premium per User will become generally available on 2 April, 2021.

There will be a standalone licence costing $20 per user per month, or an Add-on for users already licensed with a Power BI Pro or Office 365/Microsoft 365 E5 licence costing $10 per user per month.

Find the announcement article, which also details Power BI Premium features and capabilities, here: http://bit.ly/3rm1B4E, and a useful FAQ on the Power BI Premium per User licence here: https://bit.ly/3j1YNWc.

New Power Platform partner website

Microsoft launch a new site to help partners find resources around the Power Platform products.

There are pages for each of the products – Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents – with a comprehensive set of resources for each, as well as information on programs such as Catalyst and FastTrack which help customers realise value from Microsoft solutions.

There’s also help on building a Power Platform practice and links to training resources and other useful sites such as the Business Applications Microsoft Partner Community and the Power Platform blog.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/39UfX4O, and the site itself here: http://bit.ly/3ocNRqD.

New Power BI Premium per user licensing option

Today, organisations using Power BI need to license all users who publish shared content with Power BI Pro licences, and then choose to license the consumers of that content with further Power BI Pro licences or subscribe to Power BI Premium which is licensed on a capacity basis.

At the September 2020 Ignite conference Microsoft announced a new Power BI Premium per user licensing option. This will include all the features of Power BI Pro as well as other capabilities only available in Premium today. 

The public preview is planned to start in early November 2020 when the licence will be free, and GA is expected in Spring 2021 at a price to be announced.

Find a useful article on this new licensing option here: https://bit.ly/3j1YNWc and sign up to receive more information here: https://bit.ly/3379VvH.

Expansion of self-service purchase capability

Microsoft expand the capability for end users to purchase licences on their organisation’s tenant without going through the IT department.

From 15 September, 2020 users will be able to purchase Visio Plan 1 and Plan 2, and Project Plan 1 and Plan 3, as well as the currently available Power Apps per user, Power Automate per user and Power BI Pro products.

IT administrators can see any licences that have been purchased in this way through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and can turn off self-service purchase on a product by product basis using PowerShell – find instructions here: https://bit.ly/2Eum8Am.

There’s also a useful FAQ to get an overview of the processes from both the end users’ and the IT administrators’ perspective here: http://bit.ly/2T034Pe.

Azure Cost Management: February update

Azure Cost Management is a set of tools that helps customers and partners to feel in control of their spend on the Azure consumption services. Features are continually being added to this service and the February updates include new Power BI reports for EA customers, and greater visibility into the individual meter costs that make up the total cost for a resource. Find the update here: http://bit.ly/3aLFHPP.

Self-service purchase capability

14 January, 2020 is the day that Microsoft’s new self-service capability goes live for commercial customers in the US.

This functionality allows end-users to buy Power BI licences on their organisation’s tenant without going through the IT department. They pay with a credit card and get limited access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center so that they can assign licences to other users as required. IT administrators can see any licences that have been purchased in this way through their view of the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and can turn off users’ ability to self-serve using PowerShell if required. End users will be able to purchase licences for Power Apps and Power Automate soon, and the functionality will be available in other geographies through 2020. Find an FAQ here: http://bit.ly/2uNNQU3.

Visio Visual for Power BI available

Microsoft announce (July 2018) that Visio Visual for Power BI is generally available. This allows a user to use Visio Online and Power BI together to illustrate and compare data as both diagrams and visualisations in one place. From a licensing perspective, Office 365 subscribers can use five free trial instances of Visio Visual and after that, any user can view visuals, and users licensed with Visio Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 can edit a Visio Visual in Power BI.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2P9zTom.

Power BI Premium Generally Available

Microsoft confirm that Power BI Premium is generally available: http://bit.ly/2s9hhKN. Take a look at our earlier blog post for an overview of Power BI Premium: http://bit.ly/2qMOr4B.

Power BI Report Server is also generally available and page 32 of the June 2017 Product Terms confirms that customers with active SA on SQL Server Enterprise Core licences have rights to run Power BI Report Server.