You are implementing a reporting solution that has the following requirements: - Reports for external customers must support 500 concurrent requests. - The data for these reports is approximately 7…

DirectQuery would struggle with 500 concurrent requests for external customers due to repeated source database queries, and import mode for the security team would bypass the database-level security requirement.

DirectQuery for both groups would likely lead to poor performance and scalability for external customers, despite meeting the security team's requirement.

Import mode offers the best response time and scalability for high concurrency (500 concurrent requests) and larger data volumes (7 GB) because data is loaded into Power BI's highly optimized in-memory engine. DirectQuery is ideal for the security team as it pushes queries back to Azure Synapse Analytics, directly enforcing 'local security rules applied at the database level' for data access control.

Import mode for the security team would bypass the 'local security rules at the database level,' requiring Power BI to implement separate security, which contradicts the requirement.