Microsoft announces revolutionary new suite of analytical experiences in a SaaS Solution
At the highly anticipated Microsoft Build event, Microsoft announced its new data analytics solution Microsoft Fabric, will be available for public preview. But what is Microsoft Fabric and what impact could this innovative new solution have on your organisation?
Microsoft Fabric Overview
Microsoft Fabric Will Simplify Data & Analytics
Microsoft Fabric is a lake-centric software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that offers data integration, data engineering, data warehousing, data science, real-time analytics, and business intelligence, all hosted in the one place. This means organisations can process data from start to finish, without leaving the platform. Designed to empower citizen-users to get the insights they need, Microsoft Fabric is built to optimise low-code/no-code features and will deliver an integrated and simplified experience of analytics.
How Does Microsoft Fabric Work?
Microsoft Fabric has a unified data foundation with an open OneLake, providing a structure that allows you to connect to a variety of data sources with in-built governance and streamlined management. Microsoft Fabric brings together Data Factory, Power BI and the next generation of Synapse into a single unified experience for all your data and analytics workloads.
Microsoft Fabric Architecture
With Microsoft Fabric’s all-in-one design, organisations will be able to quickly ingest, process and drive intelligent insights from data, without having to rely on extensive configuration or management of underlying infrastructure. The environment of the solution has the same look and feel as the Power BI world, optimising usability and user-interface for everyday access. As data proliferation continues and pressure on IT and BI resourcing intensifies, Microsoft Fabric offers a technology that streamlines data management for a modern era.
How Does Microsoft Fabric Support AI?
Microsoft Fabric has been built to support the next generation of AI innovation, providing a platform for organisations to explore and experiment with data science and machine learning. With easy and secure native integration with data infrastructure and simple sharing of data models, code and experiments, Microsoft Fabric is developer friendly and provides large sets of rich, machine learning tools using Synapse.
Data Science in Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric harnesses the power of Synapse and will provide data science teams with streamlined access to the tools they need, all within the one platform:
- Distributed ML Model Training
- MLFlow for Synapse integration
- Azure Cognitive Services for scalable processing
- Integration with Azure OpenAI large language models
What Are The Benefits?
Microsoft Fabric offers multiple benefits for organisations looking to consolidate analytic workloads:
- Reduce time to value by unifying data management, analytics and AI
- Empower end-users and reduce dependency on IT
- Transparent and flexible cost management
- Easy-to-manage modern analytics solution
- Lake-centric and open platform
- In-built data governance and security
- Access AI powered experiences like Copilot
Cost management in Microsoft Fabric
I Have An Existing Data Platform, Can I Use Microsoft Fabric?
Microsoft Fabric is an extension on top of existing Data Platform tooling within Azure which aims to centralise all analytics and data engineering tools in one place. If you already have an investment in tools such as Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks you can still reap the benefits of Microsoft Fabric whilst retaining your existing investment. We’ll be providing guidance over the coming months on how you can make the decision to integrate Microsoft Fabric into your existing architecture or migrate your architecture over to the Fabric platform.
How To Get Started
Microsoft Fabric is in public preview, which means your organisation can register for access to the platform and explore its features. As with every new innovation in technology, a level of maturity will be established as the product is tested and used through public preview. Microsoft Fabric will be most applicable to organisations looking to move workloads to the cloud or upgrade their current data platform to align with the OneLake approach.
At Telefónica Tech, we are excited by the self-serve possibilities that Microsoft Fabric could bring for organisations. Our recommendation for every organisation exploring new tech, is to first determine the use-cases that are most valuable to your organisation, and work with an expert advisor on what solutions can be an enabler to these goals.
Our Solution Architects are on-hand to showcase the features of Microsoft Fabric, and advise on how this solution could support your unique business requirements and strategic objectives.
Learn more about Telefónica Tech Fabric offering by getting in touch today.