What is gateway in Power BI?

< 1 min read

Gateway is a secure bridge that connects Power BI Service to on-premise data sources.
It allows cloud reports to access local databases without exposing them publicly.
In my project, SQL Server was inside company network so gateway was required.
We installed On-premises Data Gateway on a dedicated server machine.
It handled scheduled refresh for Import mode datasets every morning.
DirectQuery reports also used gateway for live queries.
Credentials were stored in gateway and mapped to datasets.
If gateway service stopped, refresh and live reports failed immediately.
We monitored gateway status in Power BI Service admin portal.
So gateway enables secure and automated data connectivity from local systems.

Power BI Essentials