PowerConnect vs Atmosphere: Choosing the Right Path for TM1 Data
PowerConnect and Atmosphere are two Cubewise products that both help you get the trusted numbers in IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) into the hands of analysts and decision-makers. They are not competing tools; they answer two different requirements. Depending on what you need, you might choose one, the other, or both together.
Two different requirements
🔌 Requirement 1: "Get TM1 into Power BI"
PowerConnect is a direct connector between TM1 and Microsoft Power BI. It synchronises TM1 data, metadata, and security straight into Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service.
You stay in a TM1 mindset: shape what you need using views and subsets, lean on your existing TM1 security, and build dashboards on numbers that are already trusted and modelled.
☁️ Requirement 2: "Get TM1 into a data platform"
Atmosphere is a secure, two-way data pipeline that moves TM1 data into databases, warehouses, and data lakes such as Snowflake, Databricks, or others, and back again.
You move into a warehouse / Power BI mindset: land TM1 data in Snowflake, model it there, govern it with the platform's own security, and serve any BI tool from a single source.
Side-by-side comparison
Dimension | PowerConnect | Atmosphere → Snowflake |
|---|---|---|
Core approach | Direct, live connector between TM1 and Power BI | Pipeline that lands TM1 data in a warehouse; BI tools read the warehouse |
Architecture | Custom Power BI connector + PowerConnect Service (REST API) |
|
Where data lands | Inside the Power BI dataset | Persisted in your Snowflake warehouse (Atmosphere stores nothing; encrypted in transit) |
Consuming tools | Power BI (Desktop, Service, mobile) | Any tool that queries Snowflake: Power BI, Tableau, Excel, notebooks, and more |
Data direction | One-way: TM1 → Power BI | Two-way: TM1 ↔ Snowflake and other sources |
Metadata & hierarchies | TM1 hierarchies, attributes, and dimensions auto-sync into Power BI | Hierarchies can be flattened/built into tables; you design the target model |
Security | Reuses the existing TM1 security model on every refresh | Governed by Snowflake / the BI layer; TM1 security is re-designed downstream |
Freshness | Ad-hoc and scheduled refresh from Power BI | Scheduled / on-demand loads with deltas and selective refresh; near-real-time during cycles |
Scale | Built to scale, within Power BI dataset and capacity limits | Built for high-volume, high-frequency movement at warehouse scale |
Skills involved | TM1 (views/subsets/security) + Power BI | TM1/TI deployment + SQL/Snowflake + data modelling |
Infrastructure | PowerConnect licence + Power BI | Atmosphere subscription + your own Snowflake |
Best fit | Teams who want trusted TM1 numbers in Power BI quickly, with TM1 security intact | Organisations standardising on a governed data platform serving many tools and sources |
What is the use case?
PowerConnect: a TM1 mindset
You work the way a TM1 developer already thinks:
Create views and subsets to shape exactly what data leaves the cube.
Rely on the existing TM1 security model, with no parallel security layer to rebuild.
Pull those views into Power BI and build the dashboard on pre-shaped, trusted TM1 data.
This fits best when the people building reports know TM1 and want planning numbers in Power BI with minimal re-engineering.
Atmosphere → Snowflake: a Power BI / warehouse mindset
You work the way a BI or data engineer thinks:
Dump TM1 cube data into Snowflake tables via the Atmosphere pipeline.
Model the data in the warehouse / Power BI: build the star schema, relationships, and measures yourself.
Define security in Snowflake or Power BI (row-level security), since TM1 security does not carry across automatically.
Blend TM1 with other sources (ERP, CRM, actuals) in one governed layer, then serve Power BI or any other BI tool.
This fits best when Snowflake is your central data platform and multiple tools or large data volumes are in play.
One line to remember: PowerConnect brings Power BI to your TM1 model; Atmosphere brings your TM1 data to a warehouse world.
One line to remember: PowerConnect brings Power BI to your TM1 model; Atmosphere brings your TM1 data to a warehouse world.
Choosing one, or both
The two products meet two distinct requirements, so the choice follows the requirement rather than a ranking:
Only need Power BI dashboards on TM1 data, fast, with TM1 security? PowerConnect alone covers it.
Need TM1 data in a warehouse to serve many tools, blend sources, or scale? Atmosphere into Snowflake covers it.
Need both? Use them together: PowerConnect for direct, security-aware Power BI reporting, and Atmosphere to populate Snowflake as the shared data platform for everything else.
References: 💎 PowerConnect Fundamentals, Setting Up Atmosphere with Arc, Atmosphere product page.