Post last updated: Feb 13, 2022
There are some really interesting things on the Power BI release plan. I'd like to call out a few of the top things that I’m most excited about.
In this post, I’m focusing on a few release plan items that I think Power BI administrators in particular should be aware of as we head into 2022.
Check out this post too:
IMPORTANT: In early 2022, some release plan items are still on the 2021 wave 2 plan, while others have been moved to the 2022 wave 1 plan. The product team does relocate items sometimes, which breaks the links. So watch out for that whenever we’re in a time period that spans two time periods.
Dedicated Workspace with Tenant Metadata
This is absolutely, positively, the #1 thing on the release plan that I'm excited about. The full name for this release plan item is called "Administrative insights with long-term historical tenant activity retention, central metadata, and built-in reports."
The part that I'm particularly excited about is giving customers an easier way to get started with auditing and monitoring. From the description, it looks like the data from the activity log will be available to administrators without having to write their own scripts, schedule them, and store the data first. I’m assuming we’ll be able to modify the data model and customize the starter reports…but we’ll see when it’s released.
Things to think about from a planning perspective:
Do you have a good handle on who is currently allowed to be a Power BI administrator? The tenant-level metadata does show a lot of information about activities that are occurring. It is just metadata, but some of this information might be considered a bit sensitive. For example, seeing the # of views for an executive bonuses report. (You might like my post on: How Do You Manage Who is Permitted to be a Power BI Administrator?)
I do still think it's worth the time for (certain) administrators to learn how to call the activity log and the APIs. There are always going to be additional scenarios where you need more analytical data. Also, since this release plan item is scheduled for public preview in March 2022 (those dates are always subject to change), I’m already envisioning that this "easy way" is going to start mid-year (meaning that MoM, QoQ, YoY trending will be weird until enough history is accumulated).
Artifact-Level Access for Apps
Technically this one applies to any content creator/owner, not just administrators...but once this comes out it will impact how we'll do workspace planning, app planning, and security management. This is a close runner-up for the thing on the release plan that I'm most excited about.
This new feature will let us define different 'collections' of reports within a Power BI app so that we can define which users/groups are allowed to see which items within the app.
Things to think about from a planning perspective:
Do you have content that’s currently being published to multiple workspaces in the Power BI service, just to target different audiences? Identify those types of situations so they can be improved when this new artifact-level access becomes available. (You might like my post on Workspace Planning Criteria.)
Do you have guidance that’s published for your internal user community on how to make good decisions on using apps, workspaces, and sharing? Figure out which pieces of content need updating so you’re ready, and plan to make announcements for your internal community. (You might like to review the slides for my presentation Options for Securely Sharing Power BI Content for some ideas for what to tell your users.)
Improve My Workspace Governance
This release plan item is a really interesting one. A Power BI administrator will be able to add themselves as an admin to any personal workspace in the tenant. This is important because too often critical content gets published to personal workspaces and shared out from there (whereas a standard workspace would be a much better choice in 90% of those situations).
This is another reminder that the Power BI administrator role is a high privilege role (global admins and Power Platform admins are also Power BI admins). This is relevant because the Power BI admin can add themselves to any workspace in the tenant. It’s great functionality to have…but it’s a great reason to carefully control who is an administrator.
Things to think about from a planning perspective:
Do you have a good handle on who is currently allowed to be a Power BI administrator? (You might like my post on: How Do You Manage Who is Permitted to be a Power BI Administrator?)
Do you have your tenant settings documented? If so, you’ll be in a good position when this feature becomes available. If not, I propose you do that because it’s absolutely invaluable for your internal user community. (Tip: I have a “Tenant Settings Documentation” template you can start with in my Power BI Deployment & Governance online course.)
Centralized Power BI Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies
Data protection and data loss prevention (DLP) are a pretty big deal these days. These techniques help us implement governance with the intention of disrupting users as little as possible in their normal workflow.
This release plan item includes several enhancements to data protection capabilities. The one in particular that I'm most excited about is "Auto classification of sensitive data.” If this means what I think it means, we should be able to do scan existing content to do things like find all of the artifacts that contain customer data, or make sure that patient data is exactly where we expect it to be.
Note that this release plan item is listed in the Premium section, so it’ll only be available for workspaces with a license mode of Premium capacity or Premium Per User. (Personally I would love to see security and DLP functionality available to the entire tenant so that it’s treated consistently for all content.)
Things to think about from a planning perspective:
Do you have guidance for your internal user community on where content should be deployed in the Power BI service? (You might like my post on Workspace Planning Criteria.) How about guidance on where original Power BI Desktop (and Excel and paginated reports) should be stored? If you have these types of preferences pre-defined (especially when it comes to highly sensitive data), then you’ll be in better shape to detect potential concerns.
Do you have clear guidance for your users on what they are, and are not, allowed or encouraged to do with data and artifacts that are assigned to each sensitivity label? (Tip: I have a “Data Classification, Protection & Usage” template you can start with in my Power BI Deployment & Governance online course.)
On-Premises Data Gateway Security Roles
This one might not sound exciting, but it is. It'll allow us to have more granular security roles for managing gateways. Specifically, it means that you won't need to be a gateway administrator in order to manage data source credentials and the users allowed per data source.
This change will make it easier to share the work of managing gateways and data sources. It’ll also reduce the risk that someone won't accidentally delete a gateway — I heard a story about this from a customer recently that this happened & there's not a rollback. The principle of least privilege is a good thing.
Things to think about from a planning perspective:
Will you need to adjust gateway permissions?
Could this reduce the number of gateways you need to run? For example, maybe you set up additional gateways so they could be entirely managed by a decentralized team.
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