Will this new capability remove the need to use DirectQuery mode. It is a performance killer. Time to test.

By Eric Avidon – While Microsoft rarely does major Power BI platform updates, the tech giant adds new analytics features and capabilities on a regular basis.

A major addition in 2021 was the introduction of Goals in Power BI, a performance tracker first introduced in preview in May of last year that enables Power BI platform users to curate metrics and business objectives, and assemble them in a single location for a unified view.

Users can then measure progress against those goals using data curated in Power BI to develop performance scorecards, share updates and take proactive action when metrics and business objectives aren’t being met.

More recent highlights include the introduction of Hybrid Tables, a tool now in preview that will be part of Power BI Premium, and a preview of Power BI visualizations within Power Apps and Dynamics 365.

Hybrid Tables, unveiled in December 2021, will better enable users of Power BI Premium to run queries and develop reports and dashboards using only the most up-to-date data. Previously, in order to run queries and build analytics assets using the most recent data, Power BI platform users had to perform a data set refresh.

Hybrid Tables eliminates that need, balancing the capabilities of Power BI‘s import mode, which enables high-performing queries but not always on the freshest data, and DirectQuery mode, which enables queries on the freshest data but at the expense of report performance. Read On: