Improved Documentation/Communication to Support Power BI Users in the US Sovereign Clouds

[john27]

I propose the following ideas to improve the experience for U.S. Sovereign Cloud users.

1) A “Can I Use…” for Power BI and Fabric Services

It can be arduous to determine if a feature is available in the Power BI service. While Microsoft provides some documentation, it often lacks the level of detail needed. When I was more involved in JavaScript development, it was challenging to know if certain features were supported across browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. The website caniuse.com was a time-saver in those cases. Imagine if a similar resource existed for searching feature availability across sovereign clouds. 

This could help staff and contractors plan and implement solutions with an understanding of what is supported.

Note: Since Fabric is unavailable in many U.S. Sovereign Clouds at the time of this writing, and with the rapid pace at which features for the platform are being deployed and advertised, it will be challenging to sift through the 'signal from the noise' and determine what works for a specific Sovereign Cloud. A CanIUse-like feature could be vital to adoption and customer satisfaction.

2) Applies To: for each feature

In many organizations, a formal process reviews and approves software before installation on machines. This can result in the latest approved version of Power BI Desktop being several months old. Additionally, organizational rules often prohibit users from independently updating to the latest version of Power BI Desktop. Consequently, not all features found in search engine results are available, leading to frustration and wasted time trying to understand why a feature isn’t accessible.

Imagine if this information were displayed like "Power BI Desktop (GA: October 2024)".

You would quickly know if this feature applies to the version of Desktop you're permitted to use.

Note: This feature would also benefit large commercial enterprises with similar software review requirements, which delay the version of Power BI Desktop in use.

3) A Power BI/Fabric Blog geared just for US Sovereign Clouds

Where were you when Power BI Datasets were renamed to Power BI Semantic Models? If you were in GCC, it was months after the official announcement — and on a Thursday afternoon. The number of calls my colleagues and I received about 'What happened to my datasets?' was overwhelming and took time away from value-added work. This is just one of many similar experiences I’ve had over the years.

It would be extremely helpful if the Power BI and Fabric blogs had a stronger focus on when updates are rolled out to sovereign clouds. While U.S. Sovereign-specific news does occasionally appear in the blogs, it’s inconsistent. Additionally, relying solely on notices sent to tenant administrators is insufficient, as timely sharing of this news with staff is often unreliable. For example, I recently discovered by chance that the Power Automate Visual was supported in GCC, and many administrators hadn’t seen a notice. A GCC-specific blog post would have been invaluable.