The cheaper and secure way to share a report with 50,000 users

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have a requirement to share a report with 50,000 users. When researching on the net I've come across a couple of options, but I would like to check with you guys and gals to see what option you view as the cheaper and secure way to share this report.

--The source data for the report will be retrieved through one of the exisitng Power BI connectors (i.e. SQL, Hadoop, SharePoint).

--The users will need to be able to configure the report themselves. By this I mean they will have the ability to change visuals, add filters, etc.. (this is why I've used the term 'report' and not 'dashboard' as with a dashboard the user cannot amend the report - correct me if I'm wrong). They should not be able to see the dataset.

--The users will be a mixture of internal and external staff. So not all users will be on the Azure Active Directory tenant list, and neither can we look to add all 50,000 users to the tenant list.

--It just a single  report at the moment but could be more than one report. Not sure if this will make a difference.

I have looked at the Power BI Premuim licensing costing and it is just too expensive. There are web options but wish for your suggestions. If we cannot find a cheaper, and still secure, method then we may have to look at options outside of Power BI.

Your suggestions will much appreciated. Thanks.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous Your requirement for all the users needing the ability to change visuals, add filters - Those are going to break anything that will work OTB with Power BI. Premium currently isn't an option either until B2B works. Even then, the end users wouldn't be able to modify anything, just read.

The only possible solution would be to use the Premium Embedded license. It starts at 625/mo, but I would take a deep look into the actual cost depending on how heavily it would be used. You can check that out here under the "Explore Pricing" option, this will initiate a white paper download.

Even then, this option won't give your end users the ability to modify or create their own versions of the report.

[Anonymous]

Eno1978 - thanks for your response.

Let's say the users didn't need to customise the vanilla report (i.e. change visuals, add filters, etc..). What would be the cheaper and secure method for sharing a report with 50,000 users (internal and external)? Would a Embedded/Web API be the best solution?
Thanks.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous I haven't dug deep into the price comparisons, but at first glance it would appear that going with Power BI Premium Embedded (EM Sku) - is going to be cheaper. Starting at $625/month

But I can pretty much garauntee that won't be the actual cost based on the number of users. It is also the only way currently you can share internally/externally as B2B isn't supported in the normal Premium (P1 sku)

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous I just saw something yesterday that I was un-aware that you could do that supports your requirements for end users. When using Power BI Embedded, there are options to let the end users alter and build reports that they have access to. The downside, is that all users share this same workspace (in the Service), so it is not a single user that owns the reports, it is all users who have access to the same workspace where they are originally shared from.

But lo and behold, you can build reports from Power BI Embedded. (Learn something new everyday).

[Anonymous]

Good stuff Eno1978.  I will read up on it once I have a moment. If I have further questions I'll come back here. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Eno1978 - I previously looked at the Power BI Embedding. At the time, I didn't note the end-user could amend the reports, and also create new reports of the dataset. It seems these features are newly added to the Power BI Embedding feature. For my requirements, it does sound like the Embedding method is the option to go with, in the Power BI world anyway.

The concern is, as you say, anyone with access to the embedded report will be able to amend the report and that amendment will show to all users.

Are you aware of a way to restrict which users can do what in an embedded report? (i.e. some specified users can edit the report but the remianing users can only view the report).

Also, the end-users that view the embedded report via the web page do not have to have Power BI accounts, however this method requires Power BI Premium when moving the solution to Production. How will Microsoft know when the solution has moved to Production?  I can't see that they can for sure.

The other method is the end-users have a Power BI account, and therefore the Production solution won't need to be in Power BI Premium. Do you know if the Power BI account can be a Free account to just view a report via the web page, or if they will need Pro licenses to do this?

Thanks.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Anonymous I don't know embedded development well, I would suggest reposting a portion of your question in the developer section of this forum.

As to the licensing, I believe it works like this.

The report author holds a Pro license and admin control of the Premium Embedded license. He can create an App Workspace and add that to his premium license. This workspace is where all end users via the external app would be creating reports. They wouldn't have visibility into the workspace in the Power BI Service, but only via the custom application if it was designed that way. Ted Pattison is the MVP that was presenting his solution, maybe google to see if he has some video or blog about this specifically.

Other Method: In order to Share or view shared content, everyone must have a Pro license, or be covered by a Premium license.