Early this month, we first wrote about Microsoft Fabric, a new data platform for the AI era. At Build 2023, Microsoft officially unveiled Fabric as an end-to-end, unified analytics platform that brings together all the data and analytics tools that organizations need. Fabric integrates technologies like Data Factory, Synapse, and Power BI into a single unified
product, and it is available as a SaaS solution.
Microsoft Fabric supports a lake centric and open architecture called OneLake. OneLake is like OneDrive for Data. Microsoft is completely moving away from proprietary data formats into open data formats so that enterprises don’t have to worry about lock in. OneLake is built on and fully compatible with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLSg2), instantly tapping into ADLSg2’s vast ecosystem of applications, tools, and developers. Also, Shortcuts allow OneLake to virtualize data lake storage in ADLS Gen2, AWS S3, and Google Storage (coming soon), enabling developers to compose and analyze data across clouds.
The data available in the OneLake can be delivered directly to business users via PowerBI and the familiar Microsoft Office applications. Fabric is powered by Azure OpenAI service allowing you to unlock full potential of your data. With Copilot integrated into every data experience, you can use natural language to analyze and get insights about your data.
Microsoft Fabric will have the following seven workloads at launch:
- Data Factory provides 150+ connectors to cloud and on-prem data sources, drag and drop experiences for data transformation, and the ability to orchestrate data pipelines. Currently in Public Preview.
- Synapse Data Engineering enables great authoring experiences for Spark, instant start with live pools, and the ability to collaborate. Currently in Public Preview.
- Synapse Data Science provides an end-to-end workflow for data scientists to build sophisticated AI models, collaborate easily, and train, deploy, and manage machine learning models. Currently in Public Preview.
- Synapse Data Warehousing provides a converged lake house and data warehouse experience with industry-leading SQL performance on open data formats. Currently in Public Preview.
- Synapse Real-Time Analytics enables developers to work with data streaming in from IoT
devices, telemetry, logs, etc. and analyze massive volumes of semi-structured data with high performance and low latency. Currently in Public Preview. - Power BI in Microsoft Fabric provides industry-leading visualization and AI driven analytics that enable business analysts and business users to gain insights from data. The Power BI experience is also deeply integrated into Microsoft 365, providing relevant insights where business users already work.
- Data Activator provides real-time detection and monitoring of data and can trigger notifications and actions when it finds specified patterns in data—all in a no-code experience. Currently in Private Preview.
Microsoft Fabric is currently in Public Preview and you can try the free trial here.
