You are designing a Power BI dataset that will be based on a fact table with about 100 million rows in an Azure SQL Database. Users need reports to load in less than five seconds during the business day. They do not require near real-time data, and an overnight data-refresh window is available. Which storage mode should you choose for the fact table to meet the requirements with the least query latency?
A live connection to the Azure SQL Database
Import mode with a scheduled (or incremental) refresh during the overnight window
A composite model that keeps all rows in DirectQuery storage mode
Import mode loads data into the VertiPaq in-memory engine, giving sub-second query performance even on very large tables. Because the business allows an overnight refresh window and does not need real-time data, Import delivers the fastest report interaction while staying up-to-date through a scheduled refresh (optionally with incremental refresh to shorten load times). DirectQuery would satisfy freshness but sends every query back to the source, making it difficult to guarantee a sub-five-second response on a 100 million-row table. A live connection is not available for Azure SQL Database, and a composite model that leaves all rows in DirectQuery would still incur the same latency issues.
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