Pro vs. Licensing question

[robarivas]

I am concerned about Pro licensing vs. Free licensing. I have a small analytics team (about 15 people) that serves many operational employees and leaders. My small team wants to use Pro for collaboration amongst the 15 of us, data refreshing, etc. However, I'm concerned that this will somehow mean that all of our clients will also need to have Pro based on some things I read but may have (hopefully) misinterpreted.

In other words, there seems to be a strange irony here such that upgrading our license will effectively reduce overall functionality. Because if we stay with the Free license then it seems all our clients can "consume" our output with their free licenses. But if we move to Pro and our clients don't then they will be out of luck.

Have I just misunderstood how the environement of mixed licensing works? I really hope so. 

[Dsm999]

Hello All in this thread.

We have multiple databases where data is read from, we have a small team of power users who extract colate and report from these databases.

We have a couple of hundred consumers of these reports.

From what this thread says, the power users need pro, and because the data would be extracted using a gateway, then the consumers would need Pro not the free version to access these reports.

Is this correct.

NB

All users and consumers reside on one network.

Thanks,

david.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Dsm999 To add. If you have a couple hundred end users, I would find out when your next true-up is with MSFT subscriptions and see if you can negotiate a better rate. For larger implementations, it's highly likely that your cost will drop per license.

[mim]

@Dsm999 your are correct, everyone who consume the reports should be PRO too, even if all they do is just read the reports occasionally they have to pay 10 $?month. 

[mim]

@robarivas   yes you are right, it is a big problem,  I suggest in your case to use only free license. 

see this thread here 

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Fixes-to-Power-BI-Pro-License-Required-Dialogs/m-p/113391#U1...

. 

[v-haibl-msft · Accepted solution]

@robarivas

You can take a look at this document. There is a list of Power BI Pro content as below. If the analytic team share Pro content with free users, free users will not be able to see these contents.

• Data from a DirectQuery dataset, such asSQL Server Analysis Services tabular data,Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, or Apache Spark for HDInsight.
• Data from adataset that refreshes more frequently than daily.
• Data from a dataset that connects to on-premises data using thePower BI Gateway - Personal or the On-premises Data Gateway.
• Data (including reports, dashboards or tiles) from a dataset that usesRow-level security (RLS).
• A dashboard or report that's installed from anorganizational content pack.
• A dashboard, report, or dataset that's contained in agroup workspace.
• A dashboard that contains data streamed at a rate above 10k rows/hour.

But if the analytic team only share the content which only contains following items, both pro and free users can see them.

• A dashboard or report connected to content packs for services (e.g. Dynamics CRM, Salesforce, and Google Analytics).
• A dashboard or report with data imported from files such as Excel spreadsheets, Power BI Desktop, and CSV.
• Tiles pinnedfrom a report in SQL Server Reporting Services.

Best Regards,

Herbert

[Anonymous]

@v-haibl-msft  Does this mean that, if I build a dashboard with an excel file residing in SharePoint Online, then I'm using Pro content?

[mim]

@Anonymous it doesn't matter, with the new license model in 5 days,  only pro or premium can share. 

[Anonymous]

I understand that and I am planning to procure a Pro license anyway. I'm just curious about the data sources on SharePoint online, because some of my dashboards are built from Excel files residing in SharePoint Online. Most of my users are users of the Power BI free version though. 

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-power-bi-pro-content-what-is-it/

The above link mentions that on-premises data fall under Pro content, so it's a lot confusing. 😞 Any help would be much appreciated. 

[mim]

sorry if i was not clear, you need to be pro, and the free users that you share with them need to be pro too or you buy premium

 you are still thinking about the old model, the new model is totaly different. 

[Anonymous]

Let me lay this out clear. 

The content in this link - doesn't this seem to contradict the fact that both the pro and the free version will have the same functionalities going forth?

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-power-bi-pro-content-what-is-it/

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous As described by @mim as of June 1st 2017, those rules are no longer valid. I would assume that the documentation won't be perfect across the board for a bit, so there will be some confusion. The link you post is still valid, but will no longer be valid with the release of the new Premium license in a few days.

Here is the announcement blog, outlining how Free is getting most of all the functionality of Pro, but no sharing.

Here are the FAQ and posts in the main Community where much of this has been discussed.

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Changes-to-the-free-Power-BI/May-3-announcement-FAQ/m-p/167399#M5

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Changes-to-the-free-Power-BI/May-3-announcement-overview/m-p/167395#M4

[Creightonb]

I imported a CSV file into Power BI Desktop. I created 2 visualizations (a line graph and a clustered column chart) and uploaded that to power bi. When I attempted to use the web part (preview) it is still saying a user with the Power BI Free license needs pro to consume the data. 

How does this violate below?

• A dashboard or report with data imported from files such as Excel spreadsheets, Power BI Desktop, and CSV.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Creightonb Did you set up a gateway/refresh for the dataset?

[Creightonb]

@Seth_C_Bauer cleaned up the dataset gateway so the Power BI - persnal one is online now. I'm not using the Enterprise gateway in this particular workspace. Refresh is set to Off. Data source is a csv file. 

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Creightonb I apologize, I wasn't implying that you should install one. The use of that gateway will prompt for a "Pro" license. I assume you are still getting the "Pro" prompt?

Is there Row Level Security applied in the Desktop? I'm just looking for the reason you are being prompted for the "Pro".

Are you using a Group, or personal workspace? I don't recall if you can build a Group prior to being prompted for Pro, which is a "Pro" feature.

[Creightonb]

@Seth_C_Bauer No row security. In case it wasn't caught I'm trying to view the report via the new sharepoint online web part. Not sure if that's just a pro only thing or not. The documentation online leads you to believe otherwise. 

We're going to kill our gateway completely and be a fresh clean environment and see if it works. 

I have voiced up the chain to my Microsoft reps this licensing model is a death nell if they want to stay competitive. =]

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Creightonb Ah. In that case, yes, you need a Pro license. From both pages I've seen it's pretty clearly stated that it's a Pro feature.

SharePoint blog

PowerBI blog

[Creightonb]

@Seth_C_Bauer - yeah which I guess I read differently. So, we have a gateway updating a different dataset. So if you have a gateway at ALL you need everyone to have a Pro is what we're saying? I'm deleting the gateway we have setup now and verifying. 

So regardless of the dataset and how you're preparing the data consumption if you have a gateway all consumers need Pro? 

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Creightonb In the case of the SharePoint web part - this feature alone is a Pro feature based on the explanation in the articles I linked. So, it doesn't matter if you removed the gateway or not. (I'm thinking).

I haven't tested out a "mixed" scenario where you have a Pro license and you are sharing free content. I would imagine it is possible, but if you are using a gateway to refresh data in any manner, that is also a Pro feature.

[Creightonb]

@Seth_C_Bauer yeah. I was overly excited and the documentation is correct but I had a fundamental misunderstanding of the licensing for Pro. Which now that I've wrapped my head around it I get it. 

Shelfing Power BI until the licensing models change. It isn't cost effective/worth it to buy Pro for the entire firm. I would spend more (a lot more) on a handful of Pro licenses for the data producers/developers or even a cheaper license (not free) for all users that just consume a report randomly.

Thanks for your assistance. Moving on. =]