The Data Management Gateway is a Windows service, and can run on any Windows PC. This article is being written while using the invitation only preview of Power BI, and some of the specifics could will change by public preview, and certainly by General Availability. This article will attempt to explore some of its intricacies, tricks, and things to look out for. The Data Management Gateway does this, and a fair bit more. What was next to impossible was to have a workbook stored in Office 365 automatically update its data from an on premises data source in a manner similar to Power Pivot for SharePoint. Most of the other features of Power BI have either been available already, or could be achieved through alternate means. While it isn’t the flashiest, the Data Management Gateway is arguably the most important part of Power BI. Update August 2014 – Version 1.2 of the DMG offers significant changes, which I’ve written about here.
