Power BI is a data visualization and reporting tool from Microsoft used to uncover insights from data. Power BI Desktop is a free, local version of Power BI used to build queries, data models and visualize data by creating reports.

In this lab playground, you'll have the opportunity to play around with a preconfigured Power BI Desktop environment with access to all of the above abilities.

This playground is a safe and secure sandbox environment for you to explore your ideas using these services, follow along with Cloud Academy courses, or answer your questions, all without the need to install any software on your local machine. The extended duration of this playground provides you with ample time to play to your heart's content. The goal is to be able to experiment and learn with little start time or overhead.

This lab playground also includes a couple of suggested activities to get you started with exploring Power BI Desktop. The suggested activities are aimed at:

• Connecting to data from various data sources.
• Transforming data using the Power Query Editor to create a data model.
• Creating reports using the Power BI Desktop Report view.
• Representing data using visuals such as graphs and charts using data models.
  • Example: Visualizing sales by country pie chart using a sample financial dataset.
• Creating dashboards to tell a story through visualizations.

Intended Audience

This lab is intended for:

• Candidates studying for a Power Platform exam, such as the PL-900 (Power Platform Fundamentals)
• Data Analysts
• Business Analysts
• Power BI Developers
• Power BI Administrators

Prerequisites

To get the most from this lab, you should be familiar with the Power BI Desktop application. To get ready for it, you can complete the following courses:

• Introduction to Power BI
• Loading Data into Power BI Course
• Assessing Data Characteristics for Power BI

Updates

October 28th 2024 - Updated PowerBI version and instructions UI