Power BI real-time streaming relies on a constant data-flow that also can be used to display and update real-time data and visuals on the Power BI dashboard.
As Microsoft explains in an a blog post, “the devices and sources of streaming data can be factory sensors, social media sources, service usage metrics, and anything else from which time-sensitive data can be collected or transmitted.”
The company also shares details how to set up Power BI real-time streaming from scratch. It is a pretty simple process which requires selecting an endpoint of a streaming source, and then creating a streaming tile of a new dataset that gathers the data based on pre-defined settings. A Historic data analysis feature will enable later reporting and analysis based on the collected stream data.
Currently Power BI real-time streaming works via the Power BI REST API, using a real-time streaming endpoint, PubNub, a Data Stream Network IaaS-offering from a San Francisco based company or via Azure Stream Analytics.
Microsoft's Azure Stream Analytics allows users to manage and analyze events in real-time, performing millions of calculations per second. Using the Azure IoT Hub stream analytics connector which Microsoft released in November last year, data from an IoT Operation Monitoring endpoint can be analyzed in real-time.
