Power BI Gateway architecture for SaaS applications is a bridge between on-premises data sources and the Power BI cloud. The gateway serves as an intermediary that ensures efficient and secure access to the data. When a user creates a report or dashboard based on on-premises data in Power BI, the gateway automatically connects and brings the updated data without requiring manual exporting or moving files.
It has three main components: data source connections, security, and data transfer. The communication between on-premises environments and the Power BI cloud service is encrypted. All credentials for data sources are also encrypted within the gateway, so none of the credentials are exposed. Its functionality, however, can be further extended for SaaS applications to include connecting to APIs, allowing data from services like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Dynamics 365 to be refreshed in real-time or scheduled at one time.
One real use case of the SaaS integration is when a company employs Power BI to analyze a piece of data in Salesforce. The gateway is set up to allow Power BI to take in all data residing at Salesforce's API end without going through any manual channels. Therefore, it allows users to visualize customer and sales metrics in real time while avoiding data handling and latencies and meeting internal security requirements.
