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Power BI as a solution – Overview of Power BI and the PL-300 Exam

Power BI as a solution

Power BI has two main versions: Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service.

Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop is a visual data exploration and interactive reporting tool, providing a free-form canvas for drag-and-drop exploration of your data, an extensive library of interactive visualizations, and an authoring experience for ease of report creation for the Power BI service. It produces interactive reports and data models.

Power BI Desktop is a free, downloadable Windows desktop application optimized for the Power BI service. Although it is a Microsoft Office application, sharing much of its user interface with products such as Excel and Word, it does not require or depend on Microsoft Office.

With Power BI Desktop, you get an application that specializes in delivering interactive visualizations for data analysis. With it, you can manipulate and consolidate multiple data sources into one report, allowing you to see data from disparate sources on one pane of glass.

The Power BI service, sometimes referred to as app.powerbi.com, allows you to create beautiful visualizations to tell compelling data stories. It’s optimized to build rich, live dashboards that turn data into business insights.

With the Power BI service, you can securely share reports, dashboards, and Power BI apps with other people in your company, or even with trusted vendors and partners. This secure sharing is one of the biggest reasons for the popularity of Power BI.

The Power BI service also allows you to see your data on the go. With the Power BI mobile app, you can securely see your reports and dashboards from anywhere in the world.

So, with all of the benefits of Power BI in mind, let’s consider the certification.

Why get certified?

Probably one of the biggest reasons to get certified in Power BI, or any technology really, is to demonstrate to your employer, or a future employer, that you understand and know what it does and how it works. Employers are often looking for people with knowledge and experience. Certification can let you easily demonstrate your knowledge.

Even if you are not looking for a new job, your PL-300 certification will demonstrate your Power BI knowledge to your boss, co-workers, and everyone who sees your LinkedIn profile.

Beyond just demonstrating technical knowledge, another key benefit is that you keep current with all the changes in Power BI. The process of gaining and keeping your PL-300 certification necessitates that you learn about Power BI.

Yes, that previous sentence said keeping your certification. Microsoft announced that starting December 15, 2020, you will have to renew your PL-300 certification every 2 years. We’ll cover this more in the next section.

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