The On-Premises Data Gateway is an agent installed within the corporate network to allow secure access to organizational data stored on-premises. There are two gateway modes: Enterprise mode and Personal mode.
Power BI Desktop is a desktop-based authoring tool of choice for connecting, transforming, and modeling data for creating interactive reports. There are two Power BI Desktop executables available: one which is updated monthly and aligns with the Power BI Service, and one which aligns with the capabilities of Power BI Report Server and is updated less frequently (approx. 3x/year). Files produced by both versions work with Power BI Service. Power BI Desktop saves reports as files in the .pbix format.
The Power BI Service is a cloud-based service that supports collaboration, sharing, enterprise distribution, creation of dashboards, and additional functionality such as alerts. Online resources may refer to it as:
- PowerBI.com
- Power BI cloud service
- Power BI web portal
- Power BI web service
- Power BI site
A Power BI App Workspace is a collaboration area within the Power BI Service. An App Workspace is a distinct area, separate from My Workspace, which is dedicated to a specific team, subject area, or project. Power BI and Excel reports are published to an App Workspace so that colleagues can view the content, and contribute as appropriate.
A Power BI App is a set of packaged up content in the Power BI Service to distribute related reports and dashboards to a larger base of consuming users.
Power BI Mobile Apps are native applications for iOS, Android, and Windows for viewing reports and dashboards on a mobile device.
The On-Premises Data Gateway is an agent installed within the corporate network to allow secure access to organizational data stored on-premises. There are two gateway modes: Enterprise mode and Personal mode.
Power BI Premium is an offering that provides dedicated resources for reports, dashboards, and datasets within the Power BI Service. This provides organizations more predictable performance, larger storage volumes, larger dataset sizes, higher refresh rates, and incremental data refresh. Premium also enables the widespread distribution of content without requiring a Pro license for each read-only user. As discussed in the Licensing section, the purchase of a Premium P-series SKU also includes optional usage of the Power BI Report Server. Purchase of either the P-series or EM-series SKU also allows usage of the Power BI REST APIs targeted towards embedding scenarios.
Power BI Report Server is an alternative to the Power BI Service for deploying Power BI reports within an on-premises data center, as opposed to the cloud-based Power BI Service. Power BI reports are deployed and delivered in an on-premises portal alongside Reporting Services reports, Excel reports, and Mobile reports.
Power BI Embedded is an Azure service providing capacity resources for embedded analytics scenarios. Although the set of REST and JavaScript APIs are unified between the Power BI Embedded capabilities in Azure and the Power BI Service, they are separate and distinct offerings. Power BI Embedded (available via A-series SKUs in Azure) is for embedding visuals into custom applications.
