Power BI Governance and Administration Training UK
The definitive one-day UK course on governing and administering Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. Delivered by a Microsoft MVP and Certified Trainer. Covers the three pillars every IT director and platform owner needs: tenant governance and workspace strategy, day-to-day administration and operations, and Microsoft Purview integration for sensitivity labels, DLP, and lineage. Current to the 2026 Fabric governance landscape, including OneLake Security and the latest Purview integration.
From £895 per delegate · Private cohorts from £4,500 · Fixed price, agreed upfront, no surprises.
One day · 7 hours of structured content plus hands-on configuration · Live online or on-site UK-wide · Recordings provided · Delivered by Gethyn Ellis or a hand-picked MCT associate
What is the Power BI Governance and Administration course?
This is a one-day intensive course covering everything an IT director, platform owner, or governance lead needs to operate Power BI and Microsoft Fabric responsibly at enterprise scale. Three pillars: tenant governance (workspace strategy, the five day-one tenant settings, certification, deployment pipelines), administration and operations (capacity management, audit logs, REST Admin APIs, gateway management, monitoring), and Microsoft Purview integration (sensitivity labels, DLP policies, data lineage, and the unified compliance story for regulated industries).
Unlike training that treats governance as a single module bolted onto a broader course, this is the only UK course built specifically around governance as the primary discipline. It is current to 2026 (including OneLake Security and the most recent Purview integration), grounded in real implementations, and led by a Microsoft MVP and Certified Trainer.
The UK's Most Comprehensive Power BI Governance Course
Most Power BI governance training is a single chapter in a broader admin course, often dated and rarely written for the people actually responsible for operating the platform. This course is different in four specific ways:
Built for the IT director, not the analyst
The audience is the person accountable for the tenant, not the person building reports inside it. Content is calibrated to platform owners who need to make defensible policy decisions, not delegates revising for PL-300.
Purview as a first-class topic
Sensitivity labels, DLP policies, lineage, and the unified compliance story are not an afterthought. They are a third of the course, because that is what regulated industries actually need in 2026.
Current to the 2026 Fabric landscape
OneLake Security (GA 2026), Fabric tenant settings, the relationship between Power BI workspaces and Fabric workspaces, and the migration path from legacy Premium to Fabric capacity. Most competing courses are still on the 2023 syllabus.
Practitioner-grade, not feature-overview
Includes REST Admin APIs (GetActivityEvents, Scanner APIs), PowerShell cmdlets for audit, the actual five day-one tenant settings every organisation should configure, and the policies that survive growth. Operational depth, not marketing slides.
The Three Disciplines Every Platform Owner Needs
The course is structured around the three competencies an IT director or platform owner needs to operate Power BI and Fabric responsibly. Each pillar covers what to configure, what to monitor, and what to defend against.
Tenant Governance and Workspace Strategy
The configuration decisions that define how Power BI and Fabric behave inside your organisation. Most governance failures happen because the wrong settings were left on the defaults from day one. We work through what to lock down, what to enable, and how to structure workspaces so the platform scales without sprawl.
- The five day-one tenant settings every organisation should configure on the first day of any Power BI deployment
- Workspace strategy: domain-based, function-based, or environment-based, and why each suits different organisation shapes
- Workspace roles and the principle of least privilege (Admin, Member, Contributor, Viewer)
- Endorsement: promoted versus certified content, who can certify, and why certification is the most consequential governance control
- Deployment pipelines: Development, Test, Production, and the patterns that prevent untested content reaching the business
- External sharing, B2B guest access, and the policies that stop sensitive data leaving the organisation
- Publish to Web, export controls, and the high-risk defaults that should be off
Administration and Operations
The day-to-day operational discipline that keeps the platform healthy. Capacity management, audit, monitoring, gateways, and the automation patterns that scale governance beyond what manual review can sustain.
- Power BI Premium and Fabric capacity: F SKUs, A SKUs, autoscale, pause-and-resume, and the cost-saving levers most teams miss
- Capacity monitoring with the Fabric Capacity Metrics app and what to alert on
- Audit logs through the Microsoft Purview compliance portal (not the Power BI Admin Portal)
- Power BI REST Admin APIs: GetActivityEvents for audit extraction, Scanner APIs for metadata, GetGroupsAsAdmin for access reviews
- Building a governance dashboard in Power BI itself to monitor the platform you administer
- On-premises data gateway: when it is needed, how to set it up, and how to monitor it
- User authentication, security groups, and the policies that survive personnel changes
- OneLake Security (GA 2026): fine-grained data-level access control across all Fabric compute engines
Microsoft Purview Integration
The compliance and information protection layer that regulated industries cannot operate without. Sensitivity labels, DLP, lineage, and the unified Microsoft 365 governance story that extends from Power BI through Excel, SharePoint, and Teams.
- Microsoft Purview as the governance backbone: registering Power BI as a data source, scheduling scans
- Sensitivity labels: enabling them in the tenant, designing a label taxonomy, and the mandatory labeling policy
- How sensitivity labels propagate downstream from semantic model to report to export
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies scoped to Power BI: PII detection, financial data protection, healthcare records
- Data lineage tracking through Purview: upstream provenance and downstream impact analysis
- Compliance reporting for GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 from a single control plane
- The Purview licensing requirement (Azure Information Protection Premium P1/P2) and what it changes
- How Purview governs Fabric items: lakehouses, warehouses, semantic models, pipelines, and KQL databases
How the Day Runs
One day, three pillars, each with hands-on configuration alongside the conceptual content. The pace is deliberately intense because the audience is technical and time is the constraint, not capacity to absorb material.
Tenant Governance and Workspace Strategy
The five day-one tenant settings. Workspace strategy patterns. Endorsement and certification. Live walkthrough of the Power BI Admin Portal with the configuration patterns that matter.
Deployment Pipelines and Endorsement
The Development to Test to Production pattern. Workspace permissions and role design. Building certification as a controlled process. Sensitivity labels in pipelines.
Administration and Operations
Premium and Fabric capacity sizing. Capacity Metrics app. Monitoring patterns. REST Admin APIs and PowerShell for audit. OneLake Security overview.
Audit, Monitoring, and Gateways
Microsoft Purview compliance portal for audit. GetActivityEvents and Scanner APIs for automation. On-premises gateway architecture and management.
Microsoft Purview Integration
Sensitivity labels and label taxonomy. DLP policies for Power BI. Data lineage through Purview. Compliance reporting for regulated industries.
What You'll Be Able to Do After This Course
By the end of the day, you will be able to:
- Configure the five day-one tenant settings every Power BI deployment should have on day one
- Design a workspace strategy that suits your organisation shape (domain-based, function-based, or environment-based)
- Implement Development/Test/Production deployment pipelines with sensitivity labels carried through stages
- Size Power BI Premium or Fabric capacity correctly and configure autoscale and pause-and-resume policies
- Extract audit data programmatically using REST Admin APIs and PowerShell
- Build a Power BI governance dashboard that monitors the platform you administer
- Enable sensitivity labels in the tenant and design a label taxonomy aligned with M365 classification
- Configure DLP policies that prevent sensitive data leaving Power BI
- Register Power BI as a Purview data source and use the lineage graph for compliance reporting
- Operate Power BI and Fabric responsibly across GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 requirements
Who This Course Is For
IT Directors and Heads of IT
Accountable for the Power BI tenant, signing off governance policy, and answering to compliance and audit. Need to understand the controls without becoming a daily administrator.
Power BI Administrators
The day-to-day operators of the platform. Tenant settings, workspace management, capacity monitoring, audit log review, and the automation patterns that scale.
Platform Owners and BI Leads
Heads of BI, Centre of Excellence leads, and platform owners responsible for designing and enforcing governance across the analytics estate.
Information Security and Compliance Officers
ISOs, DPOs, and compliance leads who need to understand how Power BI fits into the broader Microsoft 365 information protection and compliance framework.
Prerequisites
The course is built for delegates with existing Power BI familiarity. You do not need to be PL-300 certified, but you should:
- Have used Power BI as an analyst, developer, or administrator
- Understand the difference between Power BI Free, Pro, and Premium Per User
- Have at least seen the Power BI Admin Portal (no need to be expert with it)
- Be comfortable with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem (Azure AD, SharePoint, Teams)
If you're brand new to Power BI, take the PL-300 course first, then return for governance. For analytics engineers who have completed DP-600, this course is the natural next step.
How This Course Compares to the Alternatives
Honest comparison against the typical UK market. Power BI governance is most often taught as a single module inside a broader admin course. Few providers treat it as a discipline in its own right.
| What you need | Typical UK provider | Gethyn Ellis |
|---|---|---|
| Course focus | Governance buried inside a broader admin course | Governance and admin as the primary discipline, three full pillars |
| Purview content | Brief mention, often missing entirely | A third of the course, with practical taxonomy and DLP design |
| Fabric integration | Inconsistent or dated, often pre-Fabric | Current to 2026 including OneLake Security and Fabric tenant settings |
| REST API and automation | Rarely covered | Scanner APIs, GetActivityEvents, governance dashboard patterns included |
| Trainer credentials | Generic "Microsoft Certified" claim | Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer with 20 years in the Microsoft data stack |
| Who delivers | Trainer pool; you find out who on the day | Gethyn Ellis or a named, hand-picked MCT associate, confirmed before booking |
| Price (per delegate) | £1,200 to £1,995 typical, governance buried in admin course | £895 per delegate, governance and admin combined, single intensive day |
| Post-course support | Email Q&A during course only | 30 days of post-course email support, plus 30 and 90-day check-ins for private cohorts |
Pricing and Booking Options
All prices exclusive of VAT. Final scope confirmed at booking. Public cohorts run on scheduled dates. Private cohorts can be delivered in your tenant.
Public Open Cohort
- One full day of live, instructor-led training
- All three pillars: tenant governance, administration, Purview integration
- Live demonstrations of Admin Portal, Purview, and capacity tooling
- Course recordings retained for 90 days
- Governance configuration playbook (PDF) provided
- 30 days of post-course email support
- Course completion certificate from gethynellis.com
Private Cohort
- Your team only, syllabus tailored to your tenant and existing governance
- Optional second day for hands-on configuration in your own tenant
- Configuration review of your current tenant settings included
- 30 and 90-day post-training check-ins
- Recordings retained for your team indefinitely
- Multi-seat economics built in
- On-site delivery available, travel costed transparently
What Previous Attendees Have Said
Frequently Asked Questions
Is one day really enough for this volume of content?
Yes, but the pace is deliberately intense. The course assumes you arrive with existing Power BI familiarity. We do not spend time on what Power BI is or how to write DAX. We start at the Admin Portal and the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and move at practitioner speed. If your team would prefer a slower pace with more hands-on time, the private cohort can be extended to two days. Recordings are provided so material can be revisited after the session.
Do I need PL-300 or DP-600 before this course?
No, neither is a prerequisite. The course is built for IT directors, administrators, and platform owners who may not be hands-on Power BI developers. You do need familiarity with Power BI as a platform, but you do not need to be exam-certified. For analysts new to Power BI, take the PL-300 course first. For engineers who have completed DP-600, this is the natural next step.
Does the course cover Microsoft Fabric or just Power BI?
Both. Fabric and Power BI share a tenant and an admin portal in 2026, so the governance and administration disciplines overlap heavily. The course covers Fabric tenant settings, OneLake Security (GA 2026), Fabric workspaces, capacity sizing for F SKUs, and the relationship between legacy Power BI Premium and Fabric capacity. The Purview integration content applies to both equally.
What is the difference between this course and DP-600?
DP-600 is the certification track for analytics engineers building on Fabric. This course is the operational track for the platform owners who govern the tenant. Different audience, different outcomes. Engineers build the platform; this course is for the people who keep it healthy. Most organisations need both, with different people on each.
Does the course include hands-on labs?
Yes, with caveats. Public cohorts include live demonstrations of the Admin Portal, Microsoft Purview compliance portal, capacity tooling, and the REST Admin APIs. Hands-on configuration in your own tenant is reserved for private cohorts, because tenant changes are typically too consequential for a shared training environment. Private cohorts can be delivered as a configuration workshop in your tenant, with two days the typical format.
Will materials be available after training ends?
Yes. All delegates receive digital copies of slides, the governance configuration playbook (PDF), and the REST Admin API code samples. Public cohort recordings are available for 90 days. Private cohort recordings are retained indefinitely for the contracting organisation.
What does the governance configuration playbook contain?
The playbook is a written reference document covering the five day-one tenant settings with rationale, the workspace strategy decision tree, the deployment pipeline pattern, the Purview onboarding checklist, the DLP policy templates, and the five most common configuration mistakes with their remediation. Approximately 30 pages. Provided as a PDF after the course.
Can the course be delivered privately for my team?
Yes. Private cohorts are popular for governance training because the configuration conversations benefit from being grounded in your real tenant and your real workspace strategy. The syllabus can be tailored to focus on the specific gaps in your current governance posture. Private cohorts run from £4,500 and are quoted on a fixed-price basis.
How does this course relate to Microsoft Purview certification?
Microsoft Purview has its own certification track (DP-700 covers some Purview content, and SC-401 is the dedicated information protection certification). This course is not a certification course. It is a practitioner course covering the parts of Purview that integrate with Power BI and Fabric. For full Purview specialisation, the Microsoft certification path is the right route.
Where Governance Fits in Your Learning Journey
Governance and administration is the discipline most often added after Power BI is already in production. Here is how it sits alongside the other courses in the cluster.
Before Governance: DP-600
For platform engineers, the typical pathway is DP-600 first (to build and operate the platform technically) then this course (to govern it responsibly). The two courses are designed to complement, not compete.
Alongside Governance: Strategic Fabric Briefing
For organisations where governance training is being commissioned at the same time as a Fabric rollout decision, the Strategic Fabric Briefing for senior leaders is the parallel session for the executive team.
After Governance: PL-300 for Analysts
Once governance is in place, the natural next step is rolling out PL-300 training to your analyst community, so they build inside the governance framework you have just defined.
Ready to Book Your Governance Course?
Two ways forward. Book a public cohort directly, or talk through whether a private cohort with a configuration workshop in your own tenant is the better fit.
One intensive day · MCT-led · UK-wide delivery · Fixed-price engagements