Am I required to purchase Premium?

[admiralman]

My company uses Office 365 and I am evaluating the use of Power BI. I will need to share reports and dashboards to some of our employees so that they can utilize Power BI desktop and/or access these assets via mobile devices. I understand for these scenarios I will need Power BI Pro licenses. The remainder of our employees I would like to publish reports via a web interface and I understand that I can use the "Publish to Web" feature. Unfortunately, I would like to automatically filter the report based upon the employee/querystring parameter which the Publish option does not support. While researching I found the Javascript API and the Embedded option which has led to my confusion. I watched a video on Channel 9 that states I can use the Javascript REST API approach (sample) and use one account that is licensed for Power BI Pro to deliver "filterable" reports via the web to my users without any additional cost. However, I have also read that the Embedded solution requires the purchase of the Premium subscription which is more cost than what is worth. Is the Rest API option and the Embedded Premium option mutually exclusive? Must I purchase the Premium subscription to meet my requirements? Any help is appreciated. 

[CahabaData]

Not sure my comments will help but here goes; how many employees are we talking?  .....   For Row Level Security that you definitely need/want to segregate data/visuals by user then these users need to have a Pro license.  In general I think of Premium as essentially being  a bulk deal for larger PBI customers.... which is why I ask about the number of employees involved.

I think of embedded in terms of those making or managing a commercial or internal software product/service and want to include PBI visuals inside it.  Can't comment on the Rest API issue.

[admiralman]

Thanks for the input but as far as my questions goes I'm not worried about row level security. I simply want to be able to put a report from PowerBI in a web page and pass parameters to it without every user being a Power BI Pro licensee. From what I understand, I can't pass parameters to a report that is hosted within a web page via the Publish option. I'm not an ISV and am not intending on making these reports "public facing". I have 500 Office 365 users that I would like to present reports to and pass parameters to.

[CahabaData]

One can embed into modern SharePoint pages - and potentially this is a path for you.

in case you're not aware: a couple Guy In A Cube videos cover url filtering.  Sorry not to be more helpful on licensing.

[admiralman]

I saw that...doesnt work with Publish to Web Reports. Each user would need PowerBi PRo license for this approach.

[CahabaData]

of course SQL based applications have always provided reporting based on the logged in user;  it's not interactive visuals & dashboards like PBI offers though....

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You need to be careful building an internally-facing web application with Power BI Embedded as this is not intended as a way of avoiding Pro/Premium licencing.

"You may use the Power BI Embedded service in your applications that (1) add primary and significant functionality to our service and are not primarily a substitute for any Power BI service, and (2) are provided for third party use. Power BI Embedded is not intended for use within your organization’s internal business applications unless your internal users are also covered by a Power BI Pro User Subscription License (USL). "

See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/power-bi-embedded/. It might be worth checking with your LSP that this is still the case given Embedded is now part of Premium.

Given the above, in your scenario I think the options are:

1. Purchase Pro for 500 users

2. Go Premium >= P1 and share in Apps

3. Share the pbix with everyone and have them deploy it to their "My Workspace" (usually not viable)

4. If you have SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance, deploy Power BI Report Server on-premises

The cost of 500 * Pro = Premium P1 so you need to think carefully.

[admiralman]

I was perusing my PowerBi videos and came across this one that initially led me down this path. Can you explain to me what the difference between Option 2 at 2:25 and Option 3 at 3:48? These appear to be two completely different approaches that Microsoft intends for you to use. One is to allow embedding into an internally facing application (as noted by the requirement for an organizational login) and the other is intended for ISVs developing their applications with PowerBI embedded into them. Is Option 2 no longer available to me without purchasing the embedded subscription or can I develop this using one PowerBI Pro account and pushing it to my organization?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egP0GHSOUIM&feature=youtu.be