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        Microsoft Aims Power BI 'Embedded' at ISV Developers
        
        
        
			- By Jeffrey Schwartz
- April 08, 2016
Microsoft recently unveiled Power BI Embedded in a bid to draw developers, primarily independent software vendors (ISVs), to  its cloud-based business intelligence tool. 
Microsoft launched Power BI for Office 365 two years ago with the goal of bringing BI to the mainstream. Power BI currently has a subscriber base of 5 million, Microsoft said last month. Now the company is reaching for more.
The new  Power BI Embedded SDK, announced at last week's Build conference,   is   delivered though the Microsoft Azure cloud and lets    developers build the Power BI service into their applications.
"You can now take the Power BI data visualization and  reporting   functionality and directly integrate it within your own  applications,"   said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise    business, during last Thursday's Build general session. "You   can do  this without requiring your users to buy or even be aware of   what Power BI is.  Instead, you can basically take advantage of the Power   BI Embedded SDK so it  just feels naturally like part of your   application using the same  authentication, log-in and overall consumer   experience that you're already  delivering to your end users."
Power BI Embedded is  priced like any other service offered in Azure, he  added. 
If   the SDK is widely adopted by ISVs and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, it could help    make Power BI more pervasive. Microsoft pointed to a number of ISVs that   plan to  embed the Power BI SDK in their own offerings, including SharePoint   workflow vendor  Nintex; location-based marketing software supplier   Solomo Technology; sales enablement  tools provider Highspot; and   Millman, which offers a financial modeling and  actuarial tool that's popular   among those who do risk analysis.
 Nick Caldwell,  Microsoft's general manager for  Power BI,  noted   in a blog post that in addition to eliminating the need for ISVs to    develop and maintain their own visualization and BI controls, Power BI Embedded will   offer  better compatibility. 
"They are guaranteed that their visualizations will work  across all   devices, and that they can leverage all of the value and innovation    that is constantly being added to the Power BI service," Caldwell said.   "By  removing the complexities of designing and developing a custom BI   solution for  applications, and making it available with the scale of   Azure, we've removed  the barriers that previously slowed the   development of intelligent enterprise  applications."
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond magazine and also covers cloud computing for Virtualization Review's Cloud Report. In addition, he writes the Channeling the Cloud column for Redmond Channel Partner. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreySchwartz.