Looker vs Microsoft Power BI

July 24, 2023 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Looker
Looker is a business intelligence software and big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyze and share real-time business analytics easily.
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Microsoft Power BI
Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. Stay in the know, spot trends as they happen, and push your business further.
Looker and Microsoft Power BI are two powerful business intelligence (BI) platforms that empower organizations to gain insights from their data. Looker is a cloud-based BI tool known for its user-friendly interface and intuitive data modeling capabilities. It enables users to explore and visualize data in real-time, creating interactive dashboards and reports with ease. Looker is particularly favored by organizations that value self-service analytics and the ability to access data from various sources effortlessly. On the other hand, Microsoft Power BI is a comprehensive BI platform that offers a wide array of features, including data preparation, data modeling, and advanced analytics. With its seamless integration with other Microsoft tools and services, Power BI is popular among businesses that already rely on Microsoft's ecosystem. It provides robust data visualization and reporting options, making it suitable for both self-service analytics and enterprise-level BI needs.

See also: Top 10 Business Intelligence software
Looker vs Microsoft Power BI in our news:

2022. Google unifies its BI services under the Looker brand



Google Cloud has made an exciting announcement, revealing its decision to consolidate all of its business intelligence products under the unified brand of Looker. This consolidation brings together Looker, Data Studio, and core Google technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Google emphasizes that this integration goes beyond traditional dashboards, which are the specialty of Google Data Studio, enabling businesses to incorporate data into various workflows and applications for informed decision-making. As a part of this transition, Google Data Studio will now be known as Looker Studio. Looker itself was a startup that Google acquired in 2020 for an impressive $2.6 billion. With this unified approach, Google officially enters the competitive landscape, challenging established players like Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, and QlikView.


2015. Microsoft integrates Cortana into Power BI service



Microsoft has made an announcement stating that the Cortana personal assistant will be integrated into Power BI, its business intelligence tool. It's important to note that Power BI already possessed some natural language query capabilities. With this integration, Cortana will be able to respond to written and spoken queries using data sets from Power BI. For instance, users can ask questions like "What was the revenue for the last quarter?" or request a chart showing the "number of opportunities by team." To utilize this new feature, users must grant Cortana access to their Power BI data sets. It's worth mentioning that Microsoft also offers Cortana Analytics, which caters to enterprises and focuses more on the machine learning and automation services that drive Cortana, rather than the Cortana client itself.

Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com