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Power BI Virtual Network Gateway helps to connect from Microsoft Cloud services to your Azure data services within a VNet without the need of an on-premises data gateway. The VNet data gateway securely communicates with the data source, executes queries, and transmits results back to the service. The VNet Data Gateway is currently in public preview and supports Snowflake as the Data Source. The steps to create virtual network gateway can be accessed via Microsoft documentation.
Connecting via Azure Private Link
The Power BI Virtual Network Gateway can connect to Snowflake on Azure through Azure Private Link. Snowflake Business Critical edition or higher is required to setup Azure private link with Snowflake. This configuration works only when Snowflake is deployed on Azure. This option enables secure and fast communication between Power BI to Snowflake using the Azure backbone without the need to setup any virtual machine for on-premises data gateway.
This also supports customers to use both import mode and Direct Query method of access and Azure AD based SSO. The Power BI Subnet should have the DNS zone configured for the Snowflake and should have network access to the private link for the Power BI to be able to communicate with Snowflake.
Connecting via NAT Gateway
This option is useful for Customers who does not have Azure private link for Snowflake or run their Snowflake on AWS or GCP. They can still utilize Power BI VNet data gateway to securely connect to Snowflake over the public endpoint. The NAT Gateway needs to be associated with the Power BI Subnet so all the outbound can go over the NAT Gateway.
The NAT Gateway public IP is then whitelisted in the Snowflake Network policies to allow Power BI to be able to communicate with Snowflake. The Power BI VNet Data Gateway is very effective for customers who consume data from Snowflake as it provides secure and scalable data access by eliminating the need to maintain a data gateway.