MS Power BI Flashcards
“How many tools do you want to use”
Tableau uses only one tool to build its
sophisticated visualization – Tableau Desktop.
Power BI is a compilation of many different tools
which all need to be used in order to get to the
final visualization. Some which come as Excel add
ins and some found on the web. Power BI is
intended to be bundled with the Office 365
Pro version of the product. This is the only
supported version of Microsoft Office for all of the
components of Power BI.
“Can you connect to a live data source?”
With Tableau’s data flexibility you can choose to connect
Live to your existing database thereby leveraging
the databases engine if desired. PowerView needs
to create an in memory data model using
PowerPivot.
“do you want to share this visualization?”
Tableau offers the ability to share your
visualizations with other users who may not have
Tableau using Tableau Public or reader while users
of Power BI need to ensure the other users also
have Power BI to view the visualizations.
“How many marks can that graph show?”
Tableau
can show literally show an unlimited amount of
marks. Power BI currently can only show 10000
Power BI is a potential “House of Cards”
Power BI is comprised of many different products that
are stitched together in various ways (add ins, cloud
services) You move from PowerPivot to PowerView to
Power Maps and then move to the web to use Q&A.
Depending on the task, you may need to use a totally
separate tool. If one tool is missing then the solution
may not work. Tableau makes available all functionality
in one tool – Tableau Desktop.
Direct Connect & Go and In-memory
Tableau supports
over 40 different live data sources natively in the
product. Tableau also has a state of the art in-memory
data engine. – no coding or scripting.
Power BI only supports an in-memory model unless you
are using the high priced MS SQL Server. Tableau
provides the choice to connect directly to any data
sources without having to load it into in-memory first.
Power BI is not cheap
The licensing cost for Microsoft
self-service BI is initially seen as less than that of
Tableau. However, given the complexity of the backend
implementation, the cost of the implementation
(i.e., IT Consulting) is likely higher for MS Power BI,
relative to Tableau
Christians response to FREE Power BI
“Microsoft is a fierce and respected competitor and we would certainly expect that they will be in the market for many years. Their recent move is the latest in a long history of ‘look, we have something for free’ moves. None of those moves historically have had an impact on the competitive structure and dynamics in our industry and as such, we don’t believe this one will as well. Particularly because it does not come in combination with what we view as any profound product change.”
