Secure Access to Azure SQL Servers for Power BI

[FlorisAtGS1]

Looking for a secure way to consume data from our Azure SQL Database as a services to our Microsoft cloud PowerBI environment, I found 2 blog posts. 1 from 2018 and one(telling the same) from 2020;

Securing the connection between Power BI and Azure SQL Database | Azure-blog en -updates | Microsoft...

Secure Access to Azure SQL Servers for Power BI - Developer Support (microsoft.com)

Both telling to setup a Virtual Machine(so old school) to accomplish this.

Our strategy(and I think in future thinking) is microservices, PAAS/SAAS/FAAS. So NO VM's that WE need to maintain.

I can't believe the best solution to realize a secure connection between 2 Microsoft Cloud services is implementing a Virtual Machine in the cloud.

Can we, in the 21st century, realize (near) the same security level with just the cloud services?  Without the need for 'old school' Window servers(as VM's)?

[FlorisAtGS1]

Thank you for the quick reply. For what I understand this 'Allow Azure Services' is a MUST for PowerBI platform to be able to access the resources. By enabling this, it actually is not a safety measure but a 'port opener'.

What many would like to see is an additional option to not allow ALL Azure/PowerPlatform, but only Azure/PowerPlatform from some subscriptions including the PowerBI subscription. 

By not having this option in Azure, I was thinking of a security 'set' to accomplish near the same security level.

For example as addition to Firewall settings; strong passwords, MFA?, etc.

[selimovd]

Hey @FlorisAtGS1 ,

depends how you define "secure access".

You don't need a VM to connect Azure SQL to Power BI. You can just activate the "Allow Azure services and resources to access this server" check box and Power BI Services can connect directly to your Azure SQL Server:

After you check this box, all Azure services would be allowed to connect to the SQL Server, but you still need access or credentials to log in to the Server.

In the blog articles they want to limit the traffic, that only Power BI can connect to the database and not all Azure resources and services. For that special setup you need a VM and a data gateway.

But for a normal access you don't need to do any of that.

If you need any help please let me know.

If I answered your question I would be happy if you could mark my post as a solution ✔️ and give it a thumbs up 👍

Best regards

Denis

Blog: WhatTheFact.bi

Follow me: twitter.com/DenSelimovic