Lets organisations keep Power BI reports, Excel workbooks and paginated reports inside their own network, published through a web portal they host themselves. Content comes from a dedicated edition of Power BI Desktop, and licences come with P SKUs or with SQL Server Enterprise plus Software Assurance.
Also called PBIRS.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Power BI Report Server in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Power BI
Microsoft's analytics and reporting service. It reaches data held on-premises through the on-premises data gateway.
- Azure Monitor workbooks
Reports in Azure that you can interact with, mixing KQL queries, metrics, parameters and text. Send Intune logs to Log Analytics and you can build them on that data.
- Dedicated
Running Azure Functions on an App Service plan, which removes the execution time limit and offers VNet integration on Basic and higher tiers.
- Power BI Desktop
A free Windows program where authors connect to sources, shape and model data, and design reports before publishing them to the Power BI service. Dashboards are not made here.
- SQL Server
The relational database from Microsoft that organisations host and run themselves, in their own data centres or on VMs. Its engine also sits underneath the Azure SQL services and SQL database in Fabric.
- Enterprise
Any group of organisations with shared goals. Examples range from an entire company or one of its divisions to a government department, or several organisations working as partners or along a supply chain.
- Software Assurance
An add-on to Microsoft volume licences granting benefits like upgrades to newer releases and Azure Hybrid Benefit on Windows Server.
Related terms
- AI splits
A decomposition tree mode, shown by a light-bulb icon, in which Power BI itself picks the field to expand next, looking for high or low values in absolute or relative terms. It is unavailable in Power BI Report Server, Azure Analysis Services and publish-to-web reports.
- SSRS
SQL Server Reporting Services. Used on premises to create, deploy and manage paginated reports, it has been consolidated, from SQL Server 2025 onwards, into Power BI Report Server for on-premises reporting.