Power BI Roadmap 2015

During its first year of availability, Power BI, an Office 365-hosted business intelligence (BI) service, improved compatibility with Excel and access to on-premises data and added self-service analysis features. Future improvements are expected to include a new Power BI portal and mobile applications with more self-service capabilities and platform changes that reduce the reliance on Excel and provide access to a broader range of data, preconfigured reports, and Azure services. The service is also removing the dependency on SharePoint Online and being converted to a stand-alone subscription service, opening the service to a broader audience.

Power BI receives updates as frequently as monthly, and its features and capabilities continue to change. This roadmap covers significant changes and trends to the service introduced in 2014 and discusses changes expected in 2015 and beyond.

Power BI Overview

The Microsoft-hosted Power BI service is an Internet-based platform for sharing refreshable reports (Excel workbooks) with users, in a more timely and secure manner than distributing reports by e-mail. The service is part of Office 365 services, and for most organizations, the service is less expensive to deploy than an outwardly facing on-premises solution.