“I hate to tell you this, but it’s not available for us yet.” This is an all-too-common phrase I find myself saying to customers in U.S. Sovereign Cloud tenants who come across new features in search engine results only to find they’re not available in our regions. For those unfamiliar, U.S. Sovereign Cloud regions allow U.S. government, public sector, and other highly regulated entities to use the cloud with the security, compliance, and data sovereignty required by their organizations.
If you do a search for “sovereign cloud,” you will find that most of the cloud providers have their own Sovereign Cloud if you are interested in the concept for any other cloud services you need to use. In this article, I am going to look specifically at how you extend this support to Power BI, and make a few suggestions for how I think it could work better.
Power BI Sovereign Cloud
In simpler terms, the versions of Power BI and Fabric we have (or don’t yet have) differ from what’s available in the private sector, known as “Commercial.” For example, it took over a year for Power BI dataflows to reach the Government Community Cloud (GCC) after their release in Commercial.
This article isn’t a critique of the “parity gap” between Commercial and U.S. Sovereign Clouds. There are understandable reasons—bureaucratic, technical, and financial—that explain those delays. Furthermore, I believe that closing the parity gap entirely may not be practical. Instead, Microsoft should consider alternative ways to enhance the U.S. Sovereign Cloud user experience.
I just want to clarify some of the differences and at the same time, propose the following ideas to improve the experience for U.S. Sovereign Cloud users.
1. Determining if you can use features of 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. At the moment, the best we can is using a hunt-and-test method which involves:
- Checking the sparse Power BI feature availability table available in Microsoft’s U.S. government cloud documentation to see if a feature is available.
- Then if the table doesn’t answer my question, I’ll have to search the Power BI blog to see if someone on the product team wrote about it (which is hit or miss).
- Finally, if the prior steps do not answer my questions, settle for a case of trial-and-error looking at which settings exist in the Power BI tenant and experimenting in the sovereign cloud.
It isn’t an uncommon issue in the industry, 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.
Figure 1 provides an example of what would be nice.
Figure 1 – A CanIUse-like search for Power BI Services would be a huge help to users of the US 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. Updating Documentation to Clarify Applicable Versions
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.
At this time, the best way to identify feature availability in Desktop is to search the Power BI blog for the monthly release notes. If you can identify when the feature was introduced in blog, you can compare it with the version you have installed. If your version of Desktop is later than the date of the blog post, you’re in good shape. However, knowing if the feature is in preview versus generally available can introduce another challenge. Often, the monthly release notes will introduce preview features, and a later post will identify when the feature is generally available.
By rule, preview features should not be used for production use. Be sure to read the article closely to make sure the feature is either in preview or generally available. From experience, this approach can be a time-consuming process and can still be frustrating having to review multiple blog posts.
To reduce this frustration, Microsoft Learn sites should update their ‘Applies To’ sections to indicate the earliest version of Power BI Desktop in which a feature appears. For example, the ‘Applies To’ section for dynamic format strings on Microsoft Learn demonstrates this (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 – What we see currently with “Applies To” for Power BI features.
Imagine if this information were displayed as shown in Figure 3 instead.
Figure 3 – What we could see with “Applies To” making it easier to understand feature availability.
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. 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 Government Community Cloud, 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.
Why suggest these in a blog?
Some may be wondering, ‘John, why not propose this directly to Microsoft?’ I do and will continue to do so. However, I make these suggestions public so that Acquisition Officers signing Enterprise Agreements can raise these issues as well. They have the ‘power of the purse’ and can influence the terms and conditions Microsoft must meet for support and documentation when working with U.S. Sovereign Cloud entities. Based on Microsoft’s guidance, I’ve also posted these ideas on Fabric Ideas, where you can vote for them if you agree.
My hope is that these ideas bring attention to the need for better support of U.S. Sovereign Clouds in mainstream Microsoft documentation and communication. In the meantime, for those working in U.S. Sovereign Clouds, I recommend visiting (and contributing to) the Federal Business Applications GitHub repository. This resource offers guidance and workarounds for the Power Platform (including Power BI) and is the best free documentation available for U.S. Sovereign Cloud users.
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