Now that you have learned about the three different ways to connect to your data, you're left to wonder which option is best for you. It's fair to say that the choice you make will really depend on the requirements of each individual project you have. To summarize, some of the considerations that were mentioned in this chapter are listed in the following table:
Consideration | Import Data | DirectQuery | Live Connection |
Best performance | X | X | |
Best design experience | X | ||
Best for keeping data up-to-date | X | X | |
Data sources availability | X | ||
Most scalable |
| X | X |
Some of these items to consider may be more important than others to you. So, to make this more personal, try using the Decision Matrix file that is included with this book. In this file, you can rank (from 1 to 10) the importance of each of these considerations to help give you some guidance on which option is best for you.
Since the Data Import option presents the most available features, going forward, this book primarily uses this option. In Chapter 2, Data Transformation Strategies, you will learn how to implement data transformation strategies to ensure all the necessary business rules are applied to your data.