Power BI is a powerful Business Intelligence and data visualization application. In this article, we will learn about different Power BI components. Gartner report places both Power BI and Tableau in the leadership quadrant.

Difference between Power BI and Tableau.

Power BI desktop

Power BI desktop is an authoring tool and is used to connect and shape the data, write powerful code for calculations and create reports containing visualizations. Power BI desktop uses the ribbon as a navigational menu to navigate to different available functionalities. Power BI desktop interacts with all the other tools in Power BI environment.

Power Query

Power Query is used for connecting and preparing data to create a dashboarding application. It enables users to connect and combine data from hundreds of data sources. It can be invoked using the Get Data option in the Power BI desktop ribbon.

Power Query Editor

Power Query Editor is used to edit the loaded queries or tables. It allows users to apply different transformations on the tables. The available data transformation options are consistent across all data sources. When you create transformations, Power Query uses M code (data Mashup) language in the background.     

Power Pivot

Power Pivot is the calculation engine of Power BI. It is used to model relationships between the tables and create calculations. Power pivot uses the DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) to build formulas and expressions.

Power View

Power View is the visualization technology that used to create tables, charts and maps. It is embedded in Power BI desktop and uses the drag-drop feature for faster creations of data visualization. Some of the visualizations available in Power BI are :

Power BI Service

Power BI Service is the cloud-based service of Power BI that let’s you publish your reports, dashboards and datasets which you have created using Power BI desktop to the cloud. Power BI service will let you share your visualizations with other users and also refresh your data. Visualizations are published to the Service from Power BI desktop.

Power BI Report Server

Power BI report server is similar to Power BI Service except that it is on-premises and not a cloud service. It will allow you to interact with on-premise data i.e. within your firewall.

Power BI mobile

Power BI offers a set of mobile apps for all kinds of mobile devices. Using these apps, you can interact with visualizations and data located on Power BI Service or report server.

All these components are integrated into Power BI application.

Chandraish Sinha

Chandraish Sinha is the Founder and President of Ohio Computer Academy, a leading institution committed to delivering high-quality IT education. With a passion for teaching and a belief in his company’s mission—Inspire, Educate & Evolve—Chandraish brings over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology industry.

Explore more of his work on his Amazon Author Profile.