Power BI to Amazon Quicksight Migration (8 Steps)

Moving your entire reporting environment isn’t a simple process. The complexity varies based on the size of your datasets and user requirements. However, a well-planned migration can improve scalability, accessibility, and cost-efficiency.

There are many pitfalls that can arise along the way! That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help make your transition from Power BI to Amazon QuickSight much smoother.

Is Amazon QuickSight Better Than Power BI?

Amazon QuickSight has a serverless architecture, pay-per-session pricing, and straightforward AWS ecosystem integration, making it an affordable and scalable option for companies.

One FAQ from businesses is whether they should continue using Power BI or move to Amazon QuickSight. While Power BI has powerful features, QuickSight is better suited for companies using AWS infrastructure.

So is QuickSight another BI tool? The simple answer is that it’s not only that, with its ML-powered insights and embedded analytics, QuickSight brings a new level of intelligence to data visualization. Aside from this, there’s also its ability to handle massive datasets with ease, which makes it a strong competitor in the cloud BI space.

Ultimately, businesses looking for a cloud-native, scalable solution often find that QuickSight’s capabilities are better suited to more modern data strategies.

How to Migrate from Power BI to Amazon QuickSight

Step 1: Check Your Power BI Reports and Prioritize Migration

When starting to migrate from Power BI to Amazon Quicksight, look at your existing Power BI reports to make sure that there is a structured route to your migration process. In doing this, prioritization helps you look at reports first while eliminating redundancies in the process, which in turn also reduces storage costs.

• Identify Key Reports: Catalog all Power BI dashboards, reports, and datasets. Prioritize based on usage and business impact. In doing so, you lower the overall effort needed in the migration process.
  
• Analyze Complexity: Review embedded DAX calculations, data transformations, and dependencies that might influence migration. By doing this, what you’re doing is making sure there are minimal performance issues later on and that the operational overhead is not as high.
  
• Define Migration Phases: After this, we’d recommend you sort reports into logical phases to improve the transition process. By carrying out your migration in phases, you prevent business disruption that can cost you customer trust, but also you control the cost of the overall effort.

Step 2: Extract Data from Power BI

Extracting data correctly is a major part of making sure there is consistency and integrity when migrating from Power BI to Amazon Quicksight. 

• Use Power BI APIs: Use Power BI REST APIs to export datasets while preserving key metadata.
  
• Access Source Databases: Retrieve data directly from the original sources rather than Power BI’s internal storage for more control.
  
• Employ ETL Tools: Use AWS Glue or other ETL solutions to structure data for QuickSight.

Step 3: Transform Data for QuickSight Compatibility

Data transformation makes sure that datasets align with QuickSight’s requirements and enhance performance when migrating from Power BI.

• Standardize Formats: Adjust schemas, field types, and relationships to match QuickSight’s architecture.
  
• Define Data Joins: Set up relationships to support accurate aggregations and queries in QuickSight.
  
• Use AWS Glue: Utilize AWS Glue to clean, format, and prepare data efficiently.

Step 4: Load Data into Amazon QuickSight

Loading data efficiently is critical to ensure users can interact with reports seamlessly.

• Connect Data Sources: Create live connections to Amazon Redshift, S3, or other supported sources.
  
• Optimize SPICE: Use QuickSight’s SPICE engine for faster performance with large datasets.
  
• Schedule Refreshes: Set automated data refresh intervals to maintain data accuracy.

Step 5: Rebuild Reports and Dashboards in QuickSight

Recreating reports in QuickSight makes sure that there is continuity and unlocks new capabilities for your ecosystem.

• Analyze Existing Reports: Identify key metrics, filters, and visual elements to be replicated.
  
• Using QuickSight Features: Utilize calculated fields, interactive dashboards, and ML-powered insights.
  
• Enhance User Experience: Use filters, drill-downs, and interactive elements for better engagement.

Step 6: Validate and Test Data

Testing and validation, making sure the data integrity and alignment with business requirements, is an important step. To do this effectively, we would recommend that users:

• Cross-Check Metrics: Compare key figures between Power BI and QuickSight.
  
• Perform Data Quality Checks: Look for missing values, inconsistencies, and incorrect mappings.
  
• Gather User Feedback: Engage end users to validate reports and confirm alignment with expectations.

Step 7: Train Users and Document Migration Processes

Proper training and documentation improve adoption and ease future maintenance.

• Create Training Materials: Develop user guides, FAQs, and video tutorials tailored to different roles.
  
• Conduct Interactive Workshops: Offer hands-on training for report building and data analysis.
  
• Maintain Documentation: Keep a record of migration steps, data sources, and dashboard configurations.

Step 8: Deploy to QuickSight and Configure Access

Deployment makes reports accessible and makes sure there is proper governance and visibility on your full ecosystem.

• Publish Dashboards: Make sure reports are rendered properly and ready for distribution.
  
• Set Up Permissions: Define user access controls to maintain security and compliance.
  
• Monitor Usage: Track report engagement to refine dashboards based on user behavior.

Why Migrate to QuickSight from Power BI?

Better Scalability

Power BI’s licensing model can become costly at scale. QuickSight’s pay-per-session approach is more cost-effective, especially for large companies.

What this does is make your costs a lot more predictable than with PowerBI. Aside from this, Quicksight also reduces your overall pricing overhead. On the whole, Amazon being the largest cloud service provider also makes them a good consideration.

This goes especially considering that as a business they’re serving users and experienced profit (90 billion USD in net revenue in 2024) with the large userbase they’ve amassed. 

Better AWS Integration

QuickSight connects directly with AWS services, reducing complexity for businesses already using AWS. Using AWS native integrations reduces the need for you to use third-party tools and platforms as much.

Aside from this, the unified data architecture also makes governance, security, and operations a lot easier to carry out.

Faster Performance

QuickSight’s SPICE engine processes data efficiently, reducing query times and improving overall responsiveness. SPICE’s in-memory computation definitely lowers infrastructure costs for your company, which comes with on-demand queries.

Also, reports load a lot faster, improving the productivity of your AWS professionals and data scientists.

Cloud-Native Solution

As a fully managed service, QuickSight removes infrastructure maintenance burdens, allowing teams to focus on insights. By using a cloud-native solution, you reduce on-premises costs that typically come with the needed IT administration that comes with non-native solutions.

More importantly, it’s a lot easier to handle any data scalability or concerns around supporting your growing data needs.

Why Partner With Entrans for Power BI to Amazon Quicksight Migration

Power BI has limitations when it comes to large-scale cloud analytics. Migrating to Amazon QuickSight offers a more scalable, cost-effective, and AWS-friendly solution.

At Entrans we have PowerBI experts, certified AWS professionals and teams equipped to handle maintaining and automating your cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, and even help you put CI/CD systems in place.

Need help with your migration process? Our team of experts can assist in making sure you have a smooth transition. Contact us today for a free consultation!