SQl Server and Power BI - Do I need any other layer in the middle? SSAS, Do I need it?

[Anonymous]

Hi Experts,

What is the best method of buidling Power BI dashboards.

Once the data is stored in SQL Server database, do I need any other layer before the data reaches to Power BI?

Do we need any other data model layers? 

SSAS, is it something we need ?

Appreciate your help.

[vanessafvg · Accepted solution]

power bi is built on the same engine as ssas.

so  if you wanted to create one model like in ssas you could just create one pbix with your modelled data, don't build any reports off it it, upload it into the power bi service in a workspace as a dataset, you can then create other reports (pbix's) pointing to the power bi dataset as you would ssas.   It depends on what you are trying to achieve.