Manvir G When offering data insights to clients at scale, security and access management are critical. However, handling these needs in a multi-tenant environment presents challenges. Serving multiple customers within a single analytics environment goes beyond having the right tools like Power BI Embedded or Reporting Hub. It requires a solid strategy for managing access. Each customer needs to trust that their data is secure, isolated, and accessible only to authorized individuals.
However, managing secure access across different tenants can get complicated.
With tasks like authentication, role assignments, and data filtering, it’s easy to get lost in the details, especially as your client base expands.
What Makes Multi-Tenant Analytics Stand Out?
Serving multiple customers from a single analytics platform offers big advantages.
You reduce duplication, simplify operations, and create a centralized, scalable analytics architecture for reporting. But with this flexibility comes the responsibility of keeping each tenant’s data isolated and secure.
Whether your tenants are external customers, internal business units, or strategic partners, they all expect a secure and seamless analytics experience. And as your platform grows, so does the need for scalable and reliable access controls.
Multi-tenant analytics allows you to give every tenant their own view unique data, reports, and user permissions all while using shared infrastructure. This setup is ideal for growing organizations, SaaS platforms, and service providers who want to deliver data-driven value without building dozens of isolated environments.
Key Security and Privacy Strategies for Multi-Tenant Analytics
So, how do you ensure each tenant sees only their data? And how do you scale securely without building custom infrastructure every time a new client comes on board?
A good multi-tenant security approach starts with core principles that can be applied across use cases.
Start by building a security-first culture where everyone understands their role in protecting data. Whether it’s developers, analysts, or account managers, awareness and consistency go a long way. From there, define access using Power BI’s Row-Level Security (RLS). RLS lets you create user roles and apply dynamic filters, ensuring users only see the data they are supposed to. You can also limit discoverability by restricting which users can access specific data models, reports, or datasets. Combine that with secure networking practices—like private endpoints and secure outbound connections, and you have the foundation for robust, compliant data delivery.
Secure Data Access with Row-Level Security
Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI restricts data access based on the viewer. For multi-tenant environments, it’s crucial for data privacy.
With RLS, you can:
Define roles for each client or user group
Apply DAX filters to restrict data dynamically
Ensure each user sees only the data assigned to them
For example, if your company has Eastern and Western divisions, RLS can ensure that users in the Eastern division only see Eastern data, while Western users see only Western data. This way, you control which data is visible to each group.
RLS is effective for users with Viewer permissions, but RLS doesn’t restrict Admins, Members, or Contributors by default, as they can access underlying datasets unless further restrictions are applied. They still have access to all data within the workspace.
While RLS is a powerful tool, setting it up manually across multiple clients can become complex. That’s where Reporting Hub simplifies things. It streamlines the management of RLS, making it easier to control access as your user base grows.
Deliver Insights Seamlessly with Power BI Embedded
Power BI Embedded allows you to embed dashboards and reports into your application or portal. It powers scalable and secure analytics for multi-client environments. Integrating directly into your product or platform gives users access to rich, interactive insights without ever leaving your environment. You control the front-end experience while Microsoft handles the backend processing and security infrastructure, helping you deliver high performance without the operational burden.
Power BI Embedded supports:
Service principals for secure app-level authentication
Master user authentication (less recommended for production)
Token-based authentication for seamless user sessions
Integration with RLS and workspace management
How Reporting Hub Manages Multi-Level Access
With Reporting Hub, managing user access is flexible and efficient. You don’t need Power BI workspace permissions to manage access independently within the platform.
Access can be controlled across three levels:
Tenant level:
Assign users to one or more tenants, each acting as a secure space with its own content and user group.
Content page level:
Control who can view specific reports or embedded content within a tenant, offering granular control over visibility.
Data level:
Use Power BI’s Row-Level Security (RLS) to restrict data within a report. Reporting Hub passes user roles through effective identity to Power BI, ensuring that each person only sees the data relevant to them.
Securing Access Across Clients
Beyond just managing access, Reporting Hub supports personalized and secure client experiences . It enables you to create fully personalized, white-labeled environments for each of your clients. Each tenant gets their own branded portal, complete with custom domains, themes, and login experiences. You can design these environments to match your client’s branding or align with your own product’s design language.
What’s more, you can maintain complete data isolation between tenants. There’s no risk of cross-client data exposure. Users only see the content and reports that belong to them. And because you don’t need to create a separate Power BI workspace for every client, you save time, reduce complexity, and keep your environment clean and scalable.
Monitoring, Auditing, and Compliance
In regulated industries, securing access is only the beginning. Proving that your access controls are working as intended is just as important. Auditors, compliance officers, and clients need to see that data is protected at every step. That’s why visibility into access and usage is critical.
Reporting Hub helps make this part simple. It integrates with Power BI’s audit logs and connects seamlessly to Azure Monitor and Microsoft Security Center. You get a clear, detailed picture of how your data is being accessed by whom, when, and from where.
With Reporting Hub, you can:
Track login and access activity by individual users or entire clients
Export usage and access logs for audits or internal billing
Monitor who’s viewing reports, making changes, or accessing sensitive visuals or filters.
Maintain a full audit trail for every client automatically
It’s built to help you stay compliant without the manual effort. Whether you’re preparing for a security review or simply keeping tabs on usage, Reporting Hub gives you the tools to do it with confidence.
Built to Scale Securely
As your client base grows, security becomes harder to manage manually.
You need systems that scale with you, without adding complexity or overhead. Reporting Hub is built for this kind of growth.
The platform centralizes control over access permissions, data sharing, and user experiences,all in one platform. You don’t need custom code or additional infrastructure. And you don’t need to spin up new workspaces every time you onboard a client.
With built-in support for RLS, token-based authentication, and tenant management, Reporting Hub gives you a streamlined, secure way to scale Power BI delivery. You can focus on building value for your clients,instead of constantly troubleshooting permissions or worrying about data leaks.
Ready to simplify secure access across clients?
Contact us or Book a demo to see how Reporting Hub can work for your team.