It uses well known technology such as Synapse and Power BI, but also adds new components.
Fabric works as an umbrella covering all these techniques, considerably simplifying the organization of data flows and analysis .
What problems does Fabric solve?
The development of new technologies continues at a rapid pace. For many people who have not made it their daily work, this is difficult to keep up.
In addition, from the Microsoft Data & Analytics stack alone, it is difficult to make choices from the more than 30 products Microsoft offers for this purpose.
Then consider the impact on licenses and costs and most won't be eager to get started at all.
With Fabric, a central platform is created that still gives you the availability of all those technologies, while not always being visible because they are integrated into the standard services offered from Fabric.
So this gives you the benefits of the different technologies, but without the usual complexity.
In addition, new developments such as Copilot are also integrated, making it the platform for the future.
It's all packed inb one license fee, based on the desired components in terms of services, storage and computing power.
How does Fabric operate?
Fabric brings together technologies such as Power BI, Azure Synapse and Azure Data Factory into one environment.
This makes it easier for developers to organize the setup of data streams from a single perspective, without having to set up and coordinate all kinds of individual tools.
Why should I use Fabric?
The techniques that Fabric offers from its central interfacing become more accessible to a wider audience because of its lower complexity, but most importantly it provides a higher degree of efficiency and shorter development time while being less prone to errors.
Consider, for example, the use of OneLake, which creates a central storage platform to bring all possible sources together for analysis purposes.
This could be compared to the well known OneDrive service, available for all Office 365 applications.
How does BIRDS fit in with Fabric?
The best of Fabric is integrated into our solution BIRDS to provide the most valuable insights.
With the use of BIRDS, we also take care of the Fabric setup.
We work together on the functional design, whereby the use of BIRDS accelerates the realization of the insights for your users.
Can I already use Fabric?
Even though Microsoft is still in the midst of developing Fabric, you can already use it. As often with new solutions, there are still open issues, but developments are moving quickly.
We are working to have the fully supported version of Fabric integrated within BIRDS in the near future.