Are You Using Snowflake & Power BI? 3 Reasons Sigma Is So Much Better

Snowflake and Power BI are popular in the data & analytics world, especially among large enterprises. However, this combination is often more about necessity than efficiency. It's time to consider a better alternative: Sigma. In this blog, we'll show you how using Sigma with Snowflake can revolutionize your D&A infrastructure and free you from the constraints of legacy BI systems.

Data governance & Single Source of Truth (SSOT)

If you’re using Power BI, you’ve likely noticed that it works best in Import mode and sometimes only at its full potential. This means Power BI duplicates your data from your CDW and stores it in Power BI Service. This method brings several issues to the table:

• Data governance - Copying data out of your CDW into reporting silos introduces unnecessary risk to your organization. The robust security and governance measures maintained by IT are often missing in business lines, paving the way for shadow IT to emerge and complicate your operations. 
• Single source of truth - Power BI’s Power Query offers robust data transformation capabilities, but this often leads to a chaotic array of disparate data models attempting to report on the same domain. While it might seem like a fast track to insights, it actually creates ongoing headaches for IT and leadership. The inconsistencies in reporting and analysis can be avoided by maintaining a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) in your Cloud Data Warehouse (CDW).
• Paying twice - When you copy your data out of your CDW, you’re hit with double charges: consumption fees from your CDW and storage costs in Microsoft’s ecosystem. This payment model is complicated and costly. With the Sigma + Snowflake approach, all your data costs are straightforward and consolidated into your Snowflake bill.

Power BI’s Direct Query mode

While Import mode is the preferred method for using Power BI, Direct Query mode is also available, but it comes with several significant drawbacks.

• Limited functionality: Direct Query mode in Power BI restricts developers from accessing the full suite of features available in Import mode. Power Query, Power BI’s ETL interface, is off-limits, and more critically, a substantial portion of DAX features are unavailable. This limitation means that the level of analysis achievable in Direct Query mode falls short compared to Import mode.
• Query speed: Despite having a dedicated Snowflake connector, Power BI's Direct Query mode is notoriously slow and cumbersome. The inefficiency of query formation and transmission to the CDW highlights that Power BI is outdated, and designed for a different era of BI users and data strategies. In contrast, Sigma is purpose-built for cloud data warehousing, offering the fastest direct query times of any BI platform.
• Row limitation: Direct Query mode in Power BI caps query results at 1 million rows, reminiscent of Excel's limitations from 1985. Do you really want to use a tool with such archaic restrictions? Sigma breaks these barriers, allowing unlimited row results, and ensuring users have access to all the data they need.

Speed to insight & scalability

While Microsoft markets Power BI as user-friendly for Excel users and everyday analysts, this is misleading. Power BI is a complex tool that takes years to master, hindering an organization’s ROI from its BI investments.

• Multiple languages - Power BI users need to learn two complex languages, M and DAX, which are challenging to pick up quickly. The complexity is such that third-party tools are often necessary to help users understand and manage the code. In contrast, Sigma’s syntax is easy to learn and apply. Most users get comfortable with Sigma’s calculations within a week or two.
• Administration & gateways - Power BI's complexity and non-cloud-native nature place a heavy administrative burden on platform teams. Administrators must manage access, maintenance, data refreshes, and data sets stored in Power BI Service. Sigma, being cloud-native and directly querying CDWs, is vastly less complex and burdensome to administer.
• Unintuitive UI - Despite Microsoft’s efforts to improve Power BI’s user interface, it remains clunky and hard to navigate. Sigma’s intuitive and streamlined UI makes our tool far more accessible and user-friendly.

Additional thoughts

If you're still on the fence about moving from Power BI to Sigma + Snowflake, let's dig into some reasons why this switch could be game-changing for your organization.

• Hidden costs of Power BI - Microsoft's pricing for Power BI might seem attractive at first glance, but beware of the hidden costs lurking beneath.some text
  • Azure VMs and Gateway Software: Many Power BI users need Gateway software for on-premises to cloud connections or cloud security. While Gateways themselves aren't an extra cost, best practices dictate running them on Azure VMs. The data processed through these VMs adds to your expenses, sometimes inflating your total cost of ownership for Power BI by 33%.
  • Auto-scaling capacity: For those on Power BI Premium Capacity, Microsoft recommends the Auto-scaling feature to meet user demand. While it ensures performance, it can also lead to unexpected spikes in your monthly bill, especially given the high cost of top-tier P SKUs.
  • Training for new users: Training users in Power BI is notoriously challenging. This isn't just an operational hassle—it's a cost. The longer it takes to get users up to speed, the longer it takes to realize the value from your BI tool, costing your organization time and money.
• Maximizing ROI with Snowflake - Investing in Snowflake or other cloud data warehouses (CDWs) is significant. Leadership expects meaningful returns from these investments. If you're using your CDW merely as a data extraction point, you're missing out on its full potential. Sigma leverages your CDW investment to its fullest, ensuring you see maximum return.
• Simplifying embedded use cases - As data sharing and embedding become industry standards, BI tools must keep up. Power BI can embed data for external users but requires coordination between Power BI and Azure admin portals, complicating the process. Sigma, being cloud-native, makes embedding data far easier and quicker, cutting down on administrative hassle and speeding up implementation.

Embrace the future of data analytics with Sigma

Power BI is undeniably popular, and many organizations use it alongside Snowflake. However, this blog aims to highlight why moving away from Power BI and legacy BI tools is essential for a cloud-first future. Sigma offers clear benefits: alignment with organizational strategy, robust governance and security, rapid insights, reduced administrative burden, and straightforward pricing.

Sigma + Snowflake can revolutionize your data and analytics capabilities. Reach out to us at sales@sigmacomputing.com to connect with an expert in both Power BI and Sigma. We're here to answer your questions and help you make the switch seamlessly.