Introduction to Power BI

What is Power BI?
In simple terms, Power BI is a tool offered by Microsoft for data visualization. It fundamentally allows us to do three things;

• It allows us to access data stored in a database, cloud, spreadsheet, etc (data source).
• Gain insights into data through the creation of dashboards, charts, graphs, etc (visualization).
• Collaborate and share reports, and dashboards easily for analytics that could be useful in driving business decisions.

Some advantages of using Power BI

• Easy to use – It is easy to set up, install, and use with little or no training required.
• Visualization – It allows you to visualize data through the creation of dashboards, charts, graphs, and more.
• Connectivity – It supports connections to a wide range of data sources that are popularly used today by individuals and businesses. Connections can be established with databases, cloud services, APIs, and more.
• Real-time information – Power BI allows you to create dashboards that display real-time information as the data is updated.
• Collaboration – Offers many ways of collaborating with work colleagues and sharing dashboards easily.
• Scalability – It is able to handle complex and large datasets as they grow.
• Artificial Intelligence – Facilitates the use of image recognition, and text analysis to create various machine learning models that can be integrated in Azure.
• Cost – It offers various pricing models to accommodate individuals and businesses.

Installation
Power BI is offered as a service (Power BI service), a Windows desktop application (Power BI Desktop), and a mobile application (Power BI Mobile).
The Power BI desktop is only available for Windows PC users. You can download the Power BI desktop here

You can sign up for a Free account using Microsoft Fabric here

You can find detailed information on how to access the Power BI Service here