Microsoft Fabric

what is microsoft fabric?

Microsoft Fabric is a powerful SaaS solution similar to Office365 and Power Platform. It combines new and existing components of Power BI, Azure Synapse and Azure Data Factory into one integrated environment. This creates an open data platform that can be used by specialists and non-specialists alike.

A notable feature of Microsoft Fabric is the use of AI, such as a Copilot (GPT-4), which allows users to create new reports and set up data integrations faster and more efficiently.

With Microsoft Fabric, companies can quickly and easily create valuable insights from their data without worrying about complicated settings or configurations. It makes data accessible to anyone, regardless of technical skills.

software as a service.

The difference between Microsoft Fabric and its predecessors, Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse, lies in the SaaS model. Users do not have to create or connect separate Azure components. They can simply log into Microsoft Fabric and get started right away. In addition, Microsoft Fabric offers a simple pricing structure, with users paying only one combined price rather than a separate price for each Azure service.

onelake.

An essential component of Microsoft Fabric, OneLake provides a central data repository for all types of data. By keeping all data in one place, OneLake prevents duplicate storage of data within organizations. This allows for more efficient data management and minimizes inconsistencies. In addition, all data is stored in open formats, such as delta-parquet format, making it easier to use and share data.

The centralized nature of OneLake makes sharing and collaborating with data between different teams and departments within an organization much easier. As a result, data can be analyzed faster and more effectively, resulting in more informed decision-making for the organization.

components of microsoft fabric.

In addition to OneLake, several "experiences" are offered within Microsoft Fabric. These experiences are tailored to specific user roles. These experiences are described below:

data factory.

Data Factory combines the simplicity of Power Query (low-code) with the scalability and power of Azure Data Factory. Users can use more than 200 built-in connectors to connect to data sources in the cloud and on-premises.

data warehouse.

The Data Warehouse experience provides excellent SQL performance and scalability. It completely separates compute power from storage, allowing them to scale independently of each other. This is made possible because all data is stored in the open Delta Lake format.

data engineering.

In the Data Engineering experience, you will use the powerful Apache Spark platform for data transformations using notebooks and Spark jobs. This toolset is specifically designed to meet the needs of Data Engineers. It allows them to manipulate and integrate large amounts of data.

Microsoft Fabric provides seamless integration with other Microsoft products.

data science.

The Data Science experience enables you to build and operationalize machine learning models. It integrates with Azure Machine Learning to create and train AI experiments. Data Scientists can augment data with predictions and help integrate those predictions into BI reports.

real-time analytics.

This experience helps you collect real-time analytics data, such as measurements from IoT devices and human interactions. This data often has a semistructured format, such as JSON or text, and arrives in large volumes with changing schemas. Traditional data warehouse platforms can struggle to process such large data sets. Fortunately, Real-Time Analytics offers an engine designed specifically for processing real-time analytics data.

power bi.

With Power BI, you can instantly view all data from OneLake. A new addition in Power BI for Fabric is the use of DirectLake queries. This allows you to query data directly in OneLake without first copying it into a Power BI dataset. This prevents duplicate data and makes it easier to quickly gain valuable insights and discover business opportunities. Power BI helps you make better decisions and improve business performance.