Bringing data into Power BI
When you are ready to create a Power BI report, the first activity is to bring data into Power BI. Despite being a rather small and seemingly insignificant step, getting data is important. You will need to determine how you get the right data and where it comes from. There are a few questions that you would need to ask before you dive in:
- What is the original source of the data?
- How close to the original source can I get?
- Is the data consistent and standardized?
- Is there a single existing repository of data and/or analytics?
Let’s explore these questions.
Imagine you are tasked with creating a sales report. You will ideally want to connect to the sales system or the sales database. You would also want to go with the production database because that is where the real and latest data live. However, if organizational policy does not allow developers to connect to production databases, you would need to look for alternatives...