Dimensional Modeling and Row Level Security
In the previous chapter, we looked at the visual layer in Power BI, where a key point was to reduce the load on data sources by minimizing the report page complexity and number of queries sent to the Analysis Services engine. We learned that this area is usually the easiest and quickest place to apply performance-related fixes. However, experience working with a wide range of Power BI solutions has shown that issues with the underlying semantic model are very common and typically have a greater negative performance impact. Importantly, this impact can be amplified because a semantic model can be used by more than one report. Semantic model reuse is a recommended best practice to reduce data duplication and development effort.
Therefore, in this chapter, we will move one layer deeper, into Power BI semantic models with a focus on Import mode. Semantic model design is arguably the most critical piece, being at the core of a Power BI solution...
