trigger azure ml experiment from powerbi

Question

I have created an azure ml experiment which fetches data from API and updates it in sql azure database. My power bi report picks data from this database and displays the report. The data from the source is changing frequently. So I need something like a checkbox in power bi which when checked will trigger the azure ml experiment and update the database with latest data.

I know that we can schedule it to run in Rstudio pipeline but we are not thinking of this approach as it is not financially viable. Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

You could use a direct query connection from Power BI to your Azure SQL instance. Then the reports in power bi will be always up to date with the latest data you have. Then the only question is when to trigger the ML experiment. If this really needs to be on demand (rather than on a schedule) you could do that in a button in your own App. You could embed the report in your app so that you get an end to end update.

Answer 2

You could have a look at the Azure Data Factory (ADF), that will help you build data pipelines in the cloud.

You can use ADF to read the data from the API (refresh your data), batch-wise-score it in Azure Machine Learning, and push it directly to your Azure SQL making PowerBI always seeing the latest data which will be scored.

Take a look at the following blog where they take data through this kind of pipeline. You just have to change that the data doesn't come from Stream Analytics but from your API. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/data_insights_global_practice/archive/2015/09/16/event-hubs-stream-analytics-azureml-powerbi-end-to-end-demo-part-i-data-ingestion-and-preparation.aspx